Desperately Seeking Ranma
by PixelWriter1
Summary: The aftermath of Aftermath. Ranma and Kasumi are missing, everyone is annoyed about it. Nabiki is doing her best, Akane is going slowly crazy (or at least crazier) and the parents are still idiots. Note: You should probably read Aftermath first, this may well not make sense otherwise. I've been told this starts slowly, but it's worth sticking with, for what that's worth.
1. Chapter 1

**Usual disclaimer, characters belong to their original creators.**

**No commercial use, for private enjoyment only**

**Apply externally**

_Note: For this to make sense, you might like to read Aftermath first. Or not. Some people don't.  
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"It's been six months, Nabiki! You always say you can find anyone, but you haven't managed to track either one of them down so far." The aggrieved female voice echoed through the yard of the large house complex, coming from an upstairs window. Several neighbours grumbled and closed their own windows, trying to keep the noise down. Those Tendo sisters were weird, loud, and annoying. The nice one had disappeared some time ago, leaving the loud one and the scary one. The father, known to the neighbourhood as '_The Fountain_' behind his back due to his habit of bursting into tears when emotionally stressed, was fairly inoffensive, although his choice of house guests had raised eyebrows.

The two long-term guests currently staying were odd. One, a good-looking auburn-haired woman who appeared younger than many suspected she was, had seemingly given up her habit of carrying a cloth-wrapped sword with her everywhere she went. This had made many people feel slightly relieved although she had never to anyone's knowledge threatened anyone with it, or even unsheathed it, outside the house. The other one, a bald male in his early forties, who gave the misleading appearance of being somewhat overweight due to a heavily muscled body type, was in some way associated with a large Giant Panda, which could fairly often be seen wandering the area. Strangely, the panda and the man were never seen together.

Some of the members of the community had a frankly unbelievable reason as to why that was, but most people from outside the Neriman area tended to think their stories were idiotic. That said, most people from outside Nerima thought the entire place was insane at best, and incredibly dangerous at worst, the Furinkan suburb being the centre of insanity. Those that had even heard of it at least. For various reasons other districts tended to pretend that Nerima didn't exist. One or two of the other wards of the Greater Tokyo area had a certain sympathy for Nerima, infested as they were by odd magical goings-on, intermittent attacks by unnatural creatures, and occasional flurries of magical girls, who were normally skimpily dressed in impractical uniforms, with a near-total disregard for collateral damage.

These wards were rather envious of Nerima, as all it seemed to have to deal with were outbreaks of martial artistry. No one from outside could really see what the fuss was about, demons and demon-hunters seemed like much more trouble. The one or two civic leaders who had gone on fact-finding measures to Nerima to work out whether they could trade one problem for another had come back pale and shaking, needing copious amounts of alcoholic beverages before they said that they preferred the demons. They were at least fairly predictable.

"I know! I don't know what's going on, damn it, I can't work out how the hell they could have vanished so effectively. _And stop shouting at me for god's sake!_" A different, smoother, but no quieter voice rang out, causing the neighbours to turn the TV up. Most of them were vaguely regretting whatever had happened to make the nice one and the teenaged boy leave half a year ago. The very pretty red-headed girl who was often around had also vanished. The three of them were beginning to be missed, the older sister had somehow managed to keep a lid on the household to a large extent, and the boy and his sister/cousin/friend/something unbelievable, depending on who you talked to, had kept a lid on most of the district. The nice one had a calming influence on everyone she met, but since she'd been gone the Tendo household had become a loud and argumentative place. Both remaining sisters seemed to spend most of the time shouting at each other, the younger one often making a lot of noise practising some form of either martial arts or demolition work, no-one could quite decide what. It certainly involved a large number of concrete blocks.

The three older people in the house also seemed to consider arguing late into the night on a regular basis an acceptable occupation. This annoyed everyone. When the other peculiar visitors were taken into account, all of whom had their own notable and normally loud voices to be added to the mix, everyone within earshot was missing the young people who seemed to have escaped the madness while at the same time rather envying them. The dark-haired young woman with the odious laugh was particularly unnerving.

Although, when the pig-tailed boy and the red-head had been in residence, some quite spectacular displays of martial artistry had broken out, often at inconvenient times of day, they'd normally been over fairly quickly. The accompanying damage to the civic infrastructure was occasionally impressive, even if not on the level one heard stories of from that ward on the other side of Tokyo with the demon problem. That said, it was also usually repaired quite fast. Since the night six months ago when, after some altercation that involved a truly remarkable effect that looked and sounded from a distance more like something out of a rather good science fiction movie, the two, or possibly three, young people had vanished, things had gone downhill.

All the lesser martial artists in the area seemed to be fighting amongst themselves almost daily, and with a total lack of thought for innocent bystanders. The pig-tailed boy, whatever his faults, had been a professional, never endangering anyone not directly involved. The other characters didn't suffer from the same reluctance, as a result of which a number of passers-by had found themselves in hospital, luckily so far not seriously injured. The police had been called a number of times, without much effect, as they were outclassed by the abilities of the miscreants in question. They had tried their best, giving a number of them a stern talking to, but to be honest that was about all they could do. No normal cell could hold any of the freakishly overpowered people involved, and frankly they were hoping that if they ignored it long enough it would solve itself as a problem.

One or two of the more experienced officers were quietly running their own search for either the pig-tailed boy or the red-headed girl, hoping that if they were located they could be asked, persuaded, or bribed to come back and deal with the problem. The overenthusiastic sergeant who had announced that he would personally force either or both of them back at gunpoint had been restrained for his own good until he came to his senses. As bad as the current crop of martial artists was, no one who had ever had even the slightest interaction with the boy, girl, or boy/girl Ranma wanted to make them angry. Enough was known or suspected about the abilities of the person or people in question to make it clear how terminally stupid that action was likely to be, especially if the rumours of what had happened that night were accurate.

The remainder of the police were kept busy trying to clamp down on the steady rise of mostly petty crime that had accompanied the loss of the young martial artist. He or she had, almost incidentally, had a profound effect on gang trouble and petty theft. Not overtly as far as the general public was concerned, but enough that the people who were prone to cause trouble, especially ones who harmed their victims, had become aware that they tended to wake up in a ditch severely beaten. Normally with no idea what had happened, other than a memory of blue eyes in the dark, and a voice telling them that it wasn't nice to attack the weak and defenceless. For the last six months, though, the crime rate had been going slowly up, crimes against the person making most of the rise.

The only good part was that the perennial problem of a diminutive underwear thief seemed to have resolved itself, as the perpetrator of the constant thefts had apparently vanished soon after the elder Tendo daughter and the boy had. Every female in Nerima had relaxed just a little bit since then.

A couple of weeks ago, though, a rather nasty crime had happened. A young school-girl had been attacked and raped, nearly losing her life in the process. The attacker had apparently been scared off by a passing policeman, who had never even seen him. This was the first time in over two years that any sexual assault had taken place in Nerima, since the last time it had happened the young man who had committed it had turned himself in, with a ruptured testicle, dislocated arm, broken jaw, broken wrist, several broken ribs, innumerable bruises, and an overwhelming terror of any female with red hair that he kept for the rest of his life.

The red-headed girl _really_ didn't like rapists.

One bright spark in the Neriman police force called in a favour at a large national newspaper and got the crime reported Japan-wide. A few days later there was a lot of screaming in one of the local parks, which attracted official attention when the sound died down to the point that the responding officers were sure that the cause had left. They found a middle-aged man, who turned out to be known to colleagues elsewhere in Tokyo for a number of crimes of violence, including rape, lying on the ground, beaten nearly to death and missing his right hand and his genitals. The wounds were unlike anything they'd ever seen before, looking more like something incredibly sharp and at the same time immensely hot had made perfectly clean cuts, cauterising the wounds simultaneously. The missing body parts were never found, although a small glassy crater a few metres away hinted at what had happened to them.

Next to him was a camera, the film from which when developed had a number of unpleasant shots on it, documenting not only the rape of the Neriman schoolgirl but three more until now unsolved assaults, one of which had resulted in a murder. While officially the police were investigating the assault on the rapist, unofficially the entire affair had been swept into the drawer labelled '_He damn well deserved what he got, the bastard, and anyway do __**you**__ want to try __to__ arrest her?_' There wasn't a hope in hell that whoever had done it would ever get charged as far as the Neriman police were concerned. No-one else in the ward cared much either, although a number of the more perceptive citizens had a shrewd idea about what had taken place in the park and were privately supportive.

The level of violent crime dropped like a stone immediately after that incident, and although it had been slowly rising again, a number of the more intelligent criminals had left the area. The collection of martial artists informally known as the Nerima Wrecking Crew had, of course, completely missed the entire sequence of events and what it implied. Nabiki Tendo would eventually work it out, being nobodies fool, but the discovery would come far too late for her to follow up on.

"Look, Akane, I've got every contact I have keeping an eye out for them. It's costing a fortune." Nabiki got up from her desk, leaning over to close the window against the chill late evening air, much to the relief of the neighbours. "No one has seen a sign of them since about two days after that night. There were a couple of sightings near the train station, and another one in the main business district of central Tokyo, but after that the trail goes dead." She sat again, swivelling around in her chair to look at her sister who was sitting on her bed scowling and grinding her teeth, apparently furious. Since that night, one she would never forget, the younger girl had been steadily getting more unstable in her sisters opinion.

Sighing, Nabiki leaned back in her chair and thought back to that night. Three days after the wedding disaster, three days of near constant arguing, shouting, and fighting. A large part of it coming from or due to the younger girl she was looking at. The night they nearly lost their eldest sister, only to have her almost miraculously saved, then lost her again. The only good thing to have come from that was that the loss was due to her leaving rather than dying, although it looked like the former state was likely to be as permanent as the latter would have been. At least Akane wasn't a murderer, mused Nabiki, watching her younger sister fume. '_Not for lack of trying,_' she thought uncharitably, regretting the thought almost immediately.

She had been finding herself feeling slightly more sympathetic to Ranma's point of view recently. Without the pigtailed boy to buffer Akane's tendency to boil over and hit things, everyone in the area was walking on eggshells. She regularly exploded into rage, but lacking a convenient martial-artist-based target, resorted to beating the crap out of a steadily increasing number of concrete blocks. Nabiki was buying them in by the pallet-load at the moment at ruinous expense. The only good part was that she had negotiated a bulk discount due to the quantities involved. She'd also had a brainwave a few weeks ago and found a purchaser for crushed concrete to be used as hardcore for building purposes. That at least got a small amount of the money back.

The brunette was dreading the day they could no longer to afford to keep her sister in blocks to break. The effect on the immediate environment, not to mention the people, was apt to be unpleasant. She hoped that they could somehow get Ranma back before that happened. Momentarily she regretted the likely damage to the boy, but decided that it was better that it happen to him than, for example, her. A slight thought of the expression in the eyes of the, at the time female, Ranma as she'd walked out the gate gave her pause, it had been the expression of someone who wasn't going to take being pushed any further. Shaking her head, she dismissed the thought. It was Ranma, he never hit Akane back...

Two days after Ranma and Kasumi had walked through the gate, both of them wearing the weirdest smiles Nabiki had ever encountered, the trail had gone dead. The day after _that,_ a group of worryingly professional appearing men with a large van had come to the house, apparently under instruction to box up and take away the majority of Kasumi's belongings. They'd had a very well itemised list, signed by the missing sister, and an attitude that suggested they wouldn't take no for an answer. Nabiki had looked at the one who had knocked politely at the door, evaluating him carefully, then at his three compatriots, before stepping out of the way. She knew when she was out of her depth. Akane had taken a certain amount of persuading to stay quiet, while their father had just cried. Nothing particularly unusual there.

The middle sister knew that Ranma was behind this somehow, torn between being curious how he'd managed to get people who looked more like high-level members of the Yakuza rather than normal removals men to do the work, and feeling that she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know. They'd filled the boxes quietly and efficiently, documenting everything, given her a receipt, and left. Although she'd tried to have them followed the trail had gone cold immediately, they were apparently professional even in counter surveillance techniques. Yet more proof that they weren't quite what they presented themselves as.

She had found out that more or less at the same time someone had turned up at Furinkan High School with a letter giving them the authority to collect Ranma's school records and transfer him away from the school. There was no indication where he was transferred to, unfortunately. It suggested that he intended to complete his schooling, not that this gave her much to go on.

After that, there had been nothing. Happosai had disappeared sometime around then although they hadn't realised until considerably later that he wasn't coming back. The first few weeks had been very loud and quite hard on the immediate surroundings. Both Kunos had taken to walking in day or night, demanding to know where Ranma or the pig-tailed girl were, more or less interchangeably. Neither one of them having been present the night it all came to a head they didn't believe anything they were told. Eventually Ukyo and Ryoga, with some interference from Akane in the guise of '_help_' had beaten them senseless, after which they tended to stay away. Nabiki knew from her contacts that both of the crazy siblings had been using their considerable resources to do much what she was doing, with a similar lack of results. In fact she knew rather more about their results than they did, due to her having arranged to intercept the information before it was given to them. In effect the Kuno family was paying for a lot of her searching, not that it was doing much good.

Cologne and the two Amazon teenagers were also looking using more non-standard methods. The brunette girl had at one point, exasperated, talked to the Amazon elder, finding her at least as frustrated as she was. In an unusually garrulous mood, mainly due to being furious, she'd let slip that she'd been attempting to trace either Ranma or Kasumi via mystical means. What had been driving her around the bend was that all her attempts had met with failure, which according to the wizened elder, meant that somehow the magical surveillance was being blocked. When she'd learned that Happosai had not been seen for a couple of months she had immediately exploded with rage, suspecting him of being the reason she was having no luck.

Nabiki had thought it was quite likely the old woman was correct, although she'd also thought it wasn't impossible that Ranma himself had learned or acquired methods of his own to deal with such tracking. He'd certainly had sufficient reason to do so even before the big blow up, as the Amazons had been a constant thorn in his side with their magic long before that day. She was under no illusions as to how effectively the martial artist could learn new techniques and methods when he had a reason to do so. She wouldn't have put it past him to learn some form of magic as a backup plan.

Whatever the truth of it, none of the considerable resources brought to bear on the problem of the missing martial artist or Tendo sister had produced any result other than large bills and huge frustration. The result had been chaos, even by the standards of the various members of the NWC. Everyone seemed to be at everyone's throats. Ryoga and Mousse had nearly killed each other for some reason neither one of them was clear on. Shampoo and Ukyo likewise. Akane was crushing blocks at a rate high enough to pave most of Nerima with the rubble produced, while the Kunos kept popping up in the background annoying everyone. Her father almost flooded the house for the first two weeks before, dehydrated and cried out, he'd gone on a massive bender, only to be slapped back into a slightly more sensible frame of mind by an unlikely saviour in the form of Genma.

Nodoka had spent a month walking around with her sword in her hand ready to use it on anyone who even looked at her oddly, before one day suddenly putting it under her bed and apparently forgetting about it. This was still puzzling Nabiki, but for various reasons she didn't feel like asking why. All three parents now spent most evenings getting morose and melancholy about all the good times, most of which were misremembered, and loudly wondering where they'd gone wrong. It was left to the younger members of the household to do the bulk of the practical work. In essence this mostly meant Nabiki, which annoyed her no end. Akane would occasionally help out, but the one thing she actively wanted to do, cook the meals, had been firmly taken over by Nodoka after the first couple of days.

The older woman had argued fiercely with the youngest sister, matters only being resolved when Akane was pushed far enough to try her own food. She'd had to beat it into submission first, which to a normal person would have been warning enough not to put any of it into her mouth. In her case the three days of projectile vomiting that followed such an ill-advised move had pretty much cured her of the desire to try again.

As a result of the loss of Kasumi the household was eating food that, while good, wasn't up to the previous standard, in a house that was much less neat and tidy. It was only since she had gone that the remaining people had realised what an extraordinary amount of work looking after a houseful of people really was, and how well she'd done it for all those years. Nabiki at least was feeling somewhat ashamed over how much they'd taken their older sister for granted. Akane had occasionally espoused a similar opinion, but normally then followed it with a rant about how it was all Ranma's fault for kidnapping the woman. She didn't appear to remember that it was Kasumi's decision to leave, and why.

Turning back to her computer, Nabiki dismissed her sister for the moment, brought back to today by the sound of an email registering in her inbox. Quickly opening it she read it, then slumped. "Damn. Another dead end."

"What was it?"

"A contact at a small university in Osaka claimed to have seen someone who looked a lot like Ranma in female form, only with blonde hair. She investigated and found it was definitely not her." The middle sister crossed another line off a very long list of dead leads.

"Are you completely sure? Maybe we should go and check ourselves." Glancing over her shoulder, Nabiki scowled.

"Yes, I'm sure. My contact was very thorough, she even got the girl's birth certificate. She's three years too old, five centimetres too tall, and her breasts aren't big enough. What more do you want? Anyway, we can't afford to go to Osaka right now." Glowering, Akane crossed her arms and stared back.

"Some intelligence genius you are. Outwitted by a dumb martial artist jock."

"Oh, for god's sake, sis. I've told you over and over, he's not dumb. That's been evident for a while now. I don't know how he's covered their tracks so well, he probably had help, but the one thing I am damn sure of is that he's a hell of a lot smarter than he let on all this time. I'd have found him for sure otherwise."

The other girl snorted. "Yeah, right. Him, smart? So why didn't he do better at school?" Nabiki shrugged.

"I have no idea. I'm pretty sure he could have, but for some reason he decided not to. I managed to get a copy of his transcripts and he was doing a lot better than we thought he was. Apparently he had some sort of deal with several of the teachers to downplay his marks in public. Again, I don't know why." Her sister looked unconvinced but dropped the subject. There was quiet for a while, only broken by the intermittent sound of grinding teeth, both sisters lost in their own thoughts. Eventually Akane spoke.

"So what's the next step?" she asked. Her sister looked pensive.

"I'm not sure. I have a few contacts that haven't checked back, so there might be something from one of them, but I'm not hopeful. I even talked to a couple of people I know in the police. They'd like Ranma back as well, they seem to think he was a positive influence on the neighbourhood as far as reducing crime went." Akane snorted disbelievingly but kept quiet otherwise. Her sister favoured her with a raised eyebrow, then continued after a few seconds. "They don't have any idea where he is either. My contact said they were actually quite impressed over how efficiently he's vanished. Again, it points to him having some sort of help. Who from is the mystery."

"OK, so he's got help. That doesn't help us, though, does it. We need to find him." Spinning her chair around Nabiki studied her sister for a while.

"I'm beginning to wonder _why_ we need to find him," she said slowly. Akane looked at her in amazement.

"What do you mean?"

Scratching her forehead, the older sister thought about it for a moment. "Well, aside from the expense and frustration, what is all this searching managing to do? We're no closer to finding him now than we were six months ago. Even if we do track him down, what then? Ask nicely if he'll come back? After what happened, I'd be a little surprised if he didn't basically shoot first and ask questions later, if at all. It wasn't like she and Kasumi left under the best of terms." She shuddered a little at the memory. "The look in her eyes when she stood up from under all that rubble... I really thought for a moment she was going to kill everyone in the garden without mercy. I've never seen so much anger and pain in someone's eyes before."

Rubbing her eyes for a moment, she glanced at her sister. "And that attack she used on your mallet, the one she saved Kasumi with? It was like something out of a sci-fi movie. I don't think you saw it properly, you were too close, but it was like a solid beam of light that came from the rubble. The noise was incredible. I had no idea she was able to do anything like that and neither did anyone else." This was indeed true. When she'd mentioned it to Cologne, the old woman had gone very quiet for some time, then refused to discuss it. She'd got the impression that the elder was genuinely shocked and scared by what she'd seen that night. None of the younger people had paid a lot of attention to the implications of the surprise new attack, but Nabiki thought this was a serious mistake.

She'd examined the rubble pile closely the next day, finding the large piece of stone the ki beam had passed through on it's way to intercept Akane's mallet. There was a fifteen centimetre diameter hole piercing entirely through it, the edges of which were glass-smooth and parallel. It looked like it had been polished, or perhaps exposed to extreme heat. Even after passing through over thirty centimetres of granite, the beam had continued on through the ki mallet wielded by her sister, disrupting it very loudly, and when she traced it's path, she had noticed a semicircular notch in the tiles on the peak of the roof some forty metres away. Climbing up by way of a ladder she'd found this was also completely smooth and glassy. Curious, she'd measured both the hole in the stone block and the notch in the roof, finding that they were basically the same diameter, implying the beam had very little spread to it.

The possible implications of all this were very disturbing. Leaving aside how on earth the red-head had been able to aim the attack so precisely from under tons of detritus, or for that matter had even known what was happening and when to use it, how had she learned to produce such an attack? No one had ever seen her use anything like it before. It was devastatingly powerful, of that Nabiki was certain, to a level that made her extremely worried. She was aware that the martial artist had a remarkable respect for life, and also that he held back a lot of his more dangerous attacks in the encounters he had with his peers, but she had developed a sneaking suspicion that nobody realised quite how _much_ he was holding back. The look on the girl's face as she'd risen from the ground like an avenging demon still made her wake up in a cold sweat on occasion. It was the face of someone who had reached their breaking point.

"I'm kind of starting to think that maybe we should let him go," the brunette said reluctantly. Akane glared, appalled.

"I don't care if you're chicken or not, but we're going to get him back. He kidnapped Kasumi, don't forget, and we have to rescue her." Nabiki sighed heavily.

"He didn't '_kidnap_' Kasumi. You know damn well what happened. Our sister went with her willingly. You _did_ nearly kill her. If it hadn't been for Ranma..." The middle Tendo was still haunted by the memory of the shock, fear, and betrayal in their elder sister's eyes, and the sudden simple joy that she'd glimpsed as the woman turned away from them and left. Akane looked away at the mention of her near-disastrous inadvertent attack on their sister, refusing to meet Nabiki's gaze. Memories of those few seconds when she knew beyond doubt that she'd killed her sister filled her until she pushed them down, yet again, by blaming it all on Ranma. If he hadn't hidden under all that debris for three days instead of coming out and taking his punishment like a man, she wouldn't have nearly hit Kasumi.

Wondering what was going through her sister's head, Nabiki watched her face, in fact coming quite close to what the other girl was thinking. After a little while she could see that the younger woman had dismissed whatever doubt she'd been feeling as her face once more filled with anger. "We're going to get him back," she repeated, abruptly standing. "He's got responsibilities to us, to me." Glaring at her sister she paced back and forth on the carpet. Nabiki sighed a little, yet again.

"Easier said than done," she muttered, turning back to her computer. More loudly, she commented, "We also need to figure out how to get more money in. In six months we've barely started repairing the Dojo, and the household budget is straining. We're likely to be eating rice and pickles again pretty soon unless we can start either making some heavy cuts, or earning more money." Casting a jaundiced eye at her sister, still wearing a hole in her carpet, she saw that the girl was pretty much ignoring her. "Akane? Are you paying attention?"

"Yes, yes, money, pickles, I heard you. What are you going to do about it?" the blue-haired girl snapped.

"Me? What about _you?_ You could, I don't know, perhaps get a job or something? You've graduated now, you don't have to go to school any more, and you don't have any university plans at the moment. Use some of that free time and earn your keep!" Nabiki was losing patience again.

Stopping in the middle of the room and raising her voice, Akane retorted, "Well, you're the one who's always selling information and photos and blackmailing people. Can't you just do more of that?" Nabiki glared back.

"Unlike you, I _do_ have university plans, which start quite soon. I'm having enough trouble earning money for that, never mind paying for a lot of the household as well. Father brings in something from his council job, Nodoka has contributed a fair amount, and even Genma has kicked in a little now and then. Although he probably stole it, the indolent bastard. You're just a net drain on the finances. You're eighteen now, time you started to help." The younger girl went dark red about the face and neck.

Even with the window shut the shouting annoyed the neighbours for hours.

* * *

"Damn and blast!" the voice shouted, accompanied by a crash of breaking ceramic. Shampoo looked up from her work in the kitchen, wincing at the yell. Wiping her hands she walked further into the private part of the building, peering cautiously into Cologne's work room, unwilling to enter without permission. Not after what had happened to Mousse that time...

"Great Grandmother? Are you all right?" she asked politely in Mandarin. The elder looked over her shoulder, glowering, then reluctantly nodded.

"Yes, child. I'm sorry, I'm getting frustrated. Every time I think I might have figured out a method to track that pig-tailed menace, I find that someone, somehow, has already thought of it and blocked it. I'm running out of ideas." Turning back to the remains of what had been her best scrying bowl she ruefully poked through the shiny fragments, glad it had had simply shattered rather than exploding. The backlash from the spell she'd tried could easily have caused much more serious damage. "I wish I knew who was helping him. Whoever it is has a serious amount of power. That spell should have punched through pretty much any anti-scrying countermeasure, instead it just bounced. It's got to be Happosai. That little pervert, despite his disgusting ways, knows a hell of a lot about all sorts of things he shouldn't." Shampoo stepped just inside the doorway, looking curiously at the wreckage.

"Are you sure it wasn't husband?" Cologne shook her head.

"How could he possibly have learned to work magic? It takes a certain mindset which I don't think he has." Shampoo wasn't convinced.

"You know what he's like when he decides to learn something. Nothing stops him." This was indeed true and the elder considered the idea carefully for a while.

"I'll admit that future son-in-law does have an impressive ability to adapt and learn when he is up against a threat, but... It still seems very unlikely to me. I think it's Happosai." She muttered to herself, not intending Shampoo to overhear, "I should have killed the little shit decades ago." The young woman heard, but suppressed the smile that threatened to come on as she didn't think her great grandmother was in the sort of mood that would appreciate it.

"Have you managed to learn anything?" she asked instead. "It's been over a year since he and the nice sister vanished." Sweeping the debris into a bag, Cologne dropped it into a waste bin, sat down, and sighed.

"Nothing. Nearly fourteen months, I've lost track of how many spells, every contact I have anywhere, and nothing. Not one verifiable sighting or even decent rumour of him being sighted, or the Tendo girl for that matter. I don't even know if they're still in Japan. Hell, for all I know they're not even in this reality or time any more." The girl with the long lilac hair looked askance at the old woman at this, which made her grin a little. "Come on, you've seen enough over the last few years to know that where _that_ boy is concerned, almost nothing is impossible. But yes, you're right, it's unlikely that he's jumped through a portal to hell or anything like that."

Leaning against the wall, Shampoo gazed unseeingly at the floor. Eventually, she looked up. "Do you think we'll ever find him?" she asked softly. Cologne shrugged.

"I hope so. He'd be an incredible asset for the tribe. And... by now I'm actually getting worried. I hope he's all right." They looked at each other for a moment, sharing a genuine concern for the boy, difficult as he was.

"Has the mercenary girl had any more luck?" Shampoo asked after a few seconds. Cologne shook her head.

"No, not that I am aware. Not that she'd tell me if she did, but I'd have found out by now anyway. She's still trying although the last I heard they were running out of money to pay for the search. I believe that she's somehow managed to subvert most of the investigators working for the Kuno children, very sneaky, she's getting the rich idiots to pay for the bulk of her search. But, just like us, she's found nothing."

There was silence for a moment, then Shampoo nodded, turning to go back to work. As she left the elder reached for yet another scroll, opening it and looking for a spell she hadn't tried yet.


	2. Chapter 2

"_Son_ of a _**bitch!**_" Nabiki yelled, staring at her computer screen. Akane, who was passing her room at the time, came in to find out what was going on. The elder girl was home during a short holiday, normally she stayed at the university accommodation as much as possible, due to the somewhat strained household relationships. Genma and Nodoka were still living in the Tendo house after nearly two and a half years, which slightly puzzled her, but at the same time it at least meant that edible food was being cooked. Soun was even slowly recovering his mental health, reaching the point that he had been discussing with the other martial artist the idea of taking on a few students.

Of course, where to teach them would be the problem, the Dojo itself was still only half-rebuilt, due to a lack of funds. It at least had a roof without holes now. They were thinking of renting space in a nearby warehouse, with the thought that they could put any money earned into completing the rebuilding. Nabiki was all for the idea, but privately felt it was pretty ambitious for a pair of middle-aged albeit undeniably very good martial artists, especially as one of them was nearly the text-book example of sloth while the other tended to have major emotional breakdowns on a semi-random basis. Still, it _might_ work, and if nothing else would keep them busy.

Her sister and she were getting along better at the moment, after a long period during which they barely spoke. Akane had managed to find a job in retail that stuck, having gone through a number of others, losing most of them due to her bad temper. This last one was working for a small jewellery shop, the owner of which had been impressed when an attempted theft on her first day had resulted in an unconscious thief with two broken arms. He'd decided that the enhanced security was worth the occasional argument. The money was reasonable, adding a welcome flexibility to the household budget. Unfortunately the debts that had built up would take some time to pay off before she could seriously start saving for her own further education.

"What's the problem?" she asked, entering the room. Nabiki pointed an accusing finger at her monitor.

"An old police report a contact sent me. It's from nearly two years ago." She was extremely pissed off, and a curious Akane came over and read it over her shoulder. The details were somewhat gruesome.

"I remember hearing something about that. The pervert got what was coming to him, everyone thought. The girl he assaulted was the sister of someone I knew at school." Nabiki shook her head.

"No, you're missing the point. Read it again, and think about it. Read the notes from my contact as well." The younger woman did so, then glanced at her sister.

"I still don't get it." The brunette sighed impatiently.

"Look. Someone at the police station here in Nerima got this crime, nasty but local, reported in a major paper covering all of Japan. Five days later the rapist is found nearly dead in a park with bits missing. The police got reports of screams for at least an hour before they bothered to investigate, which is unusually inefficient of them. The missing parts were never found but they did find a melted crater in the ground near him." She looked at her sister's face to see if she was following. "No one has ever been arrested or even questioned about the attack on the rapist, and my contact said that they had no intention of following up on it. Doesn't that sound a little odd to you?" Akane shrugged.

"So?"

"I recognise the name of the lieutenant at the station who called the papers. He knew Ranma, he was one of the few policemen that knew all about him. The guy is smart, and also kind of... flexible... in his approach to life in Nerima. Pragmatic, I guess." Paging up through the document, she pointed to a line in the medical report. "Totally clean cuts even through the bone, cauterised, almost no blood loss. No tool marks of any kind. The man was beaten to a level that the doctors say should have killed him, but whoever did it was so good they missed everything critical, just hit all the painful places." Akane was still looking blank and now slightly irritated.

Nabiki swivelled her chair around, staring at her sister like she was looking at a child. "It was Ranma. I'm sure of it." The blue haired young woman returned her gaze for a few seconds, stepping back and sinking down to sit on the bed

"Ranma did that?" She didn't immediately disbelieve it but wasn't convinced. Nabiki nodded firmly.

"It was a martial artist, definitely. Only someone very skilled in the art could do that much damage without critically injuring the person. And the cuts? The only thing I can think of that I've ever seen that could do something like that was some sort of ki attack. The cat-fist could certainly slice someone into little bits as easily as a knife through butter. The cauterisation is a bit odd, but even so, it fits. As does the crater."

"Maybe some other martial artist could have done it? There are a lot of them around here, you know." Akane still wasn't convinced.

"Possibly. But I don't think so. Any of the others I know personally would have just kicked the shit out of the guy then dropped him off at the police station. I'm aware there are quite a few I've never met, but one thing I do know is that Ranma is much, much better than any of them. And I know for a fact that he absolutely hates rapists. It's almost scary how he feels about rape. One time I saw him read something in the paper about a girl getting assaulted near here, he looked like he was ready to kill someone. You know what he's like about defending the weak, and nothing says the weak needing defending like rape." She paused, watching Akane, who seemed less disbelieving. "I think the fact that he's female a lot of the time gives him even more reason to get upset about attacks on women. Whatever, he doesn't take prisoners where that sort of thing is concerned."

Turning back to the report she scanned it again, nodding. "It was him, I'm certain. Which means that he was back here nearly six months after he vanished. And it's taken me _two damn years_ to find out about it!"

"Can we use that to find him?"

Nabiki shook her head. "It's much too long ago. Perhaps if I'd found out at the time... perhaps not. He seems to have been very careful to cover his tracks. Apparently the police did unofficially poke around a little but found nothing."

"So it's useless, then." Akane stood up, dismissing the report with a grunt. Stomping out of her sister's room she went downstairs to shout at Genma, the reminder of her errant fiancé bringing on a bad mood. Nabiki watched her go, then turned back to her computer with one eyebrow twitching a little. The girl, young woman now, as she had just turned twenty the previous month, was still erratic and prone to outbursts of massive anger. Both the middle sister and her father had told her to keep the public displays of destruction to a minimum as she was now a legal adult, which gave the police slightly more leverage if she caused trouble. Amazingly she seemed to have listened at least to some degree, with the result that she didn't get into as many fights as before. How long that would last was anyone's guess.

A lot of it probably hinged on the next time Ryoga would turn up. About a year ago Akane had finally worked out what everyone else had know for a long time, that Ryoga and her little pet P-Chan were one and the same. It had been completely accidental, she'd managed to spill a pan of near-boiling water on the little pig when she was in the kitchen and Ryoga hadn't seen it coming. Even while he was screaming in agony, red and naked on the floor, she had seen, understood, gone almost purple with rage, then proceeded to inflict the beating of a lifetime on him. Nabiki had in the end been forced to call on Ukyo and Shampoo to help pull her off him before she killed him. If it hadn't been for the fact that he was nearly invulnerable there was little doubt that he wouldn't have made it.

Even so, he spent nearly a month in the hospital and was walking with a limp for another six. The damage to the side of the house where he'd been knocked through, the garden, the garden wall when he'd gone through _that_, and two cars in the street outside looked more like a decent size bomb had been dropped on the area. The two policemen, veterans of Nerima, that had finally showed up when everyone was sure that it was safe had been genuinely impressed with the level of damage, and quietly appalled that one slim female had done it with her bare hands. No one wanted to see a repeat, so Ryoga was quickly spirited away when Akane was arguing with Ukyo, what was left of him being taken to recover at a hospital well outside the area. Afterwards everyone denied knowing where he'd ended up. The youngest Tendo looked for him for at least a couple of months after this, intending to finish the job, but luckily for both of them couldn't find him.

Nabiki had gone to have a quiet word with the part-time pig when he'd recovered enough to be able to talk. She'd pointed out that while he was undoubtedly tougher than her sister, she was a lot like that American comic book character The Hulk in that the angrier she got the more dangerous she became. Ryoga had managed to make her angrier than anyone had believed possible. His inability to effectively defend himself against women, unless the woman in question was Ranma, would also work against him. There was a good chance she could, and indeed would, kill him if they met up again while she was still furious, so it was strongly suggested that he steer well clear of Nerima for the foreseeable future. Like the next ten years or so. She'd given him some cash they could ill afford, a new set of accurate maps and a compass, and told him to make sure he stayed out of the area in future. He hadn't been seen more than a few times since, always moving at a dead run directly away when he realised he had accidentally strayed back into danger range.

It was only a matter of time until he popped up too close before he could work it out, which made Nabiki lose sleep now and then. Hopefully by the time this happened her sister would have cooled off a little, although it didn't seem likely at the moment. She was even more convinced that all men were perverts, although she made a few rare exceptions if they were old enough and she felt that they deserved some respect. That was the only reason she was able to get a job at all. The middle sister had wondered for some considerable time whether her sister was a closet lesbian, her intense dislike for males seemed excessive otherwise. Her dislike for anything she deemed '_perverted_' was even more intense, most definitely including anything that smacked of homosexuality, which went a long way towards explaining her constant anger. Even on a good day it was simmering just below the surface.

Repairing the damage to the house and garden had used up most of the money that Nabiki had budgeted towards rebuilding the Dojo, delaying that project even more, but the house took priority. She still hoped to get it finished within the next six months so when winter came it was done.

Looking through the police report yet again, she re-read the notes from her contact, thinking about what it all meant. After a few minutes pondering it she emailed a request for more information on any other cases over the last couple of years that met a certain set of specific conditions, then turned the computer off. Lying on her bed she stared at the ceiling for a while, mulling over what she'd learned.

Despite Akane's arguments to the contrary she was certain that the report detailed something that Ranma had been responsible for. There were just too many things that didn't add up otherwise. But that said, the report raised worries, ones she was sure that Akane had missed. The level of brutality involved in the injuries sustained by the rapist spoke of a certain coldness that she'd never have suspected the young martial artist capable of, at least before that unforgettable night nearly two and a half years ago. On _that_ night, having seen the expression the red-headed girl had worn as she walked out of the rubble, she'd have believed almost anything you cared to mention. It had been terrifying. If it _was_ Ranma, he had changed.

'_Not surprising, all things considered,_' she thought to herself. '_People do change as they mature, and god knows he's had more reason than anyone else I know..._' Closing her eyes for a moment she massaged them. '_I suppose the fact that the rapist lived is proof that he hasn't completely thrown away mercy, although under the circumstances it might have been kinder to finish the job. I wonder if that was the point?_' Sitting up then swinging her legs around, she sat on the edge of the bed for a moment before standing up and heading downstairs to begin cleaning the living room. She still didn't like doing the work, but as she didn't have to all the time now since she was away at university a lot of the time, she felt it was her duty to improve on the rather indifferent job Akane and the others managed when she was in residence. She liked coming home to a clean house.

As she ran the vacuum around the room she was still thinking about the whole Ranma situation. In truth over the last year she hadn't been putting as much effort into the search as she had for the first eighteen months, partly due to a lack of funding, partly due to thinking that if the boy hadn't been found by that time, it was unlikely that he'd suddenly give himself away. If she ever did find him she suspected it would be by luck more than anything else. Akane had slowly stopped pushing so hard, although it didn't take much to get her ranting on the subject. In fact Nabiki was pleasantly surprised that she'd not seized on the police report to start yet another argument about how the middle sister should be trying harder to track the martial artist down.

Both of them still missed Kasumi every day, but even there Akane's guilt about what she'd nearly done had stopped her pushing too hard eventually. In the end she barely mentioned their older sister unless either very tired or very angry. Nabiki wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. When the subject did come up the younger woman would usually change it quickly with a look in her eyes that made it clear the subject was uncomfortable for her. Everyone had learned not to mention either the missing fiancé or the missing sister unless they really wanted a good shouting match.

The NWC had slowly moved on after the Ryoga incident. Both Kunos still occasionally put in a highly unwelcome appearance, although neither one seemed to have their hearts in it. Tatewaki would every now and then deliver a request for pictures of his '_pig-tailed princess_' but it seemed to be more for old times sake than anything else. Kodachi had a habit of intermittently dropping into the back yard and giving off one of her horrific laughs, but after Akane nearly killed Ryoga she'd become much more circumspect. No saner, though. Nabiki still got reports on her behaviour towards whatever poor sod had sparked her interest that month, most of whom left the area for good as soon as they could. The young woman needed professional help, or possibly just locking up. Not that either of these events would be likely to happen due to the family's political influence.

Ukyo had gone home for an extended period a few months ago, cutting contact with Nerima completely for a while and closing the okonomiyaki café. Some time later Konatsu had disappeared as well, both of them eventually reappearing a few weeks later, reopening the shop and carrying on as if nothing had happened. Nabiki's curiosity had driven her to investigate, but all she'd easily been able to find out was that Ukyo had managed to persuade her father that there was no chance of her marrying Ranma. Oddly enough she seemed quite relieved about it and happier than she'd been for some time beforehand. The middle Tendo had visited her café many times since, noting that the cross-dressing ninja seemed to be very close to Ukyo now, closer than before, reaching her own conclusions after watching them for a while. As far as she was concerned it was their own business but privately she was pleased for the sake of someone who had become a friend.

The thing she found most surprising was that the Amazons were still in the area. With so long having passed since Ranma disappeared she had expected that they'd return to China, but they hadn't moved. Nabiki was on fairly good terms with them, strangely. She didn't trust Cologne, Cologne didn't trust her, but it was a sort of Cold War détente type of mistrust. Neither one thought the other was likely to suddenly turn on them, while at the same time neither one would necessarily believe anything the other said without checking it carefully. They both occasionally exchanged information on their respective searches when it suited them.

Shampoo had become considerably better at speaking Japanese over the last couple of years having put in quite a lot of effort. The young woman had almost the exact opposite of a gift for languages but got annoyed about being taken as something of a bimbo, in the end finding a good mail-order language course and sticking to it with surprising discipline. In the end she still made the odd mistake but overall sounded a lot smarter. Mousse was still pursuing her with no apparent luck but refused to give up. He was impressive in his dedication but showed a lack of common sense in Nabiki's opinion.

A couple of months ago she'd asked Shampoo outright why they were still in Japan. The answer both surprised and amused her. Both young people had come to realise that while they held great affection for their village they found daily life in Japan much more to their liking in most respects. They'd integrated pretty well into Neriman life which was probably helped by the fact that Nerimans were quite used to the unexpected and found foreign martial artists who occasionally turned into animals more comedic than anything else, as long as they refrained from fighting in the streets and damaging the fixtures and fittings. Since Ryoga had left, or more accurately been kicked out, the number of fights had reduced considerably. This pleased the average Neriman nearly as much as it pleased the local police who had been getting very irritated by their impotence in the face of the random attacks of martial artistry.

That's not to say that these things had stopped completely, or even dramatically reduced in number. It's just that without the main heavy guns of the local martial artist group the damage had become much more manageable. Nerima was still a pretty weird place by most people's standards, with a higher density of martial artists and mystical fighters than probably anywhere on the planet.

With the drop in fights between each other the various parties had taken to exercising their martial instincts on any evil-doers who were dim enough to do evil within the boundaries of the ward. Crime had plummeted to levels lower than anyone could remember as a result. It was a spectacularly brave, stupid, or ill-informed mugger who tried plying his or her trade within Nerima. It never ended well for them. This suited the police quite nicely as they were a particularly pragmatic bunch by normal cop terms. As long as the crime stayed low, no one was too badly beaten, and they could claim credit for the arrests, they were perfectly happy to let things proceed as normal. Most of them were cynical enough to realise there wasn't a hell of a lot they could do about it anyway, something that had been brought home pretty effectively during the first few months of Ranma's disappearance.

The few police who knew the truth were still quietly keeping an eye out for either the pig-tailed boy or the red-headed girl, but had given up actively searching. Long before Nabiki had come to much the same conclusion they had decided that to vanish so thoroughly meant the martial artist either had powerful help, knew something they didn't, or had left the country completely. '_Possibly the planet,_' quipped one lieutenant, which got him some odd looks followed by slow thoughtful nods. You couldn't put anything past _that_ person.

The only reason they bothered with even the amount of vigilance they _did_ was due to the intermittent reports that came in at widely separated intervals of sexual predators who met particularly nasty comeuppances. These happened all over the Greater Tokyo area and in a few other cities throughout Japan, giving the people who looked into this sort of thing the distinct impression that there was a sexual predator predator out there somewhere. Discussions had been had between the local Neriman police and a few high-ranked officers from other districts, after the third one of these cases. Much information was given out behind a firmly closed door, some photos and video shown, and the high-ranked officials eventually left looking more than a little disturbed. Even slightly frightened.

After considerable thought the decision was made that as long as whatever it was kept to doing what it was doing, there was little they should do about it. Or, the unwritten addendum added, _could_ do about it. Some of the video they'd been shown was, well, worrying. Not to mention that there was no proof whatsoever that the events were connected other than a certain feeling in the bones of various experienced cops. Each method of retribution, while excruciatingly painful, appeared to be unique, and carefully judged to be non-fatal. For all they could prove it was merely a series of vaguely similar but unconnected random attacks. As these were all on people who were known to be extremely dangerous sexual deviants, accounting between them so far for over fifty-three murders spanning some forty years, no one could really bring themselves to be overly worried about the '_victims_'. Technically, crimes were being committed, but in the process they were solving much worse crimes.

There was also the fact that no collateral damage was created, no one had ever seen or heard anything other than some nasty screaming, and in any case it was a lot less bother than random demon attacks, which some wards still suffered from. These wards, when they became aware of what had happened to certain unsavoury individuals, began rather wishing that whoever or whatever was behind that would turn their attention to demons. They were certain to cause less trouble than those bloody magical girls, who still didn't seem to realise that destroying an entire street and hospitalising a dozen people for shock at each demonic encounter was heading into definite overkill territory.

Finishing with the vacuum cleaner Nabiki put it away in the cupboard, then began cleaning the table and generally tidying up. She'd become quite good at household tasks, something she'd long felt was beneath her, partly due to circumstances and partly out of belated respect for her vanished elder sister. The brunette still held out hope that Kasumi would one day walk through the door and didn't want her to come into the house she'd run so well for so long to find it a mess. Finishing with the living room and moving into the kitchen she looked around with a snort. "Some cleaning, Akane," she mumbled under her breath, picking up a pan and looking at the crud caked on it with disgust. The younger sister had obviously snuck in and tried her hand at cooking once more, despite the threats from both Nabiki and Nodoka at what would happen if she did that again.

There were only so many times you could chase chicken teriyaki around the garden with a shovel before you decided that enough was enough, after all.

Grumbling, Nabiki reached for the hammer and cold chisel they kept in the drawer for just such an occasion, viciously chipping whatever it was off the sides of the pan, wincing as it sparked. She continued musing on the whole Ranma affair.

The most unexpected thing about the Amazons in her opinion was Cologne. The old woman, lead elder of the tribe, seemed to prefer being as far away from that tribe as possible. The young woman had never quite summoned up the nerve to ask her outright but it seemed likely that the reasons Shampoo and Mousse had for staying in Japan applied to the elder as well. Certainly she seemed to find modern appliances very useful, and apparently enjoyed running a noodle restaurant. While Nabiki had no doubt that she was still as devious as ever behind the scenes the old girl seemed to have contentedly settled into a certain routine.

A few times she'd gone back to China for a couple of weeks, once or twice taking Shampoo with her, but always reappeared. The tribe itself still seemed to want Ranma found and Nabiki suspected that Cologne was using that desire to give herself a convenient excuse to stick around in Nerima.

Finishing with the pan she dropped it into a plastic bucket, then half-filled it with water. Retrieving a bottle of hydrochloric acid, normally used for cleaning particularly stubborn drains, from under the sink, she poured a generous amount into the bucket, leaning back from the cloud of purple vapour that rose from the bubbling contents accompanied by a hissing sound. "Purple? That's new. What the hell was she cooking with, ink?" The smell was appalling so she held a hand over her mouth and picked the bucket up with the other one, quickly carrying it out into the back garden. The fumes subsided after ten minutes or so, during which she finished with the rest of the dishes. Reclaiming the bucket she carefully lifted the stainless steel pan out, half-expecting to find it full of holes. Or possibly transmuted into gold.

In fact it was as shiny as if it was brand new. "Damn. If I could find out how she made that stuff we could sell it as a heavy-duty cleaner," she muttered, rinsing off the pan and inspecting it. While she was looking at it and marvelling at how clean it was there was a tired little squelching noise from behind her, making her turn just in time to see the bucket collapse into a soft mess of dissolved plastic and spill it's contents all over the floor. Luckily the mix of acid and whatever Akane had cooked up seemed to have expended it's activity, so it only left a nasty black-blue puddle rather than a hole. Nabiki sighed heavily and went to find the mop.


	3. Chapter 3

"Well, Genma old boy, I think we can be proud of ourselves."

"Indeed, Tendo. Five students, and no fatalities yet. Or even any serious injuries! The Saotome-Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts is a success."

"You mean the Tendo-Saotome School, surely?"

"Not at all, my friend. The Saotome name is far better known in martial arts circles than the Tendo name. No offence."

"None taken, my dear friend. But I believe you may be mistaken. The Tendo Dojo has been a fixture of Nerima for far longer than the Saotome name has been associated with anything other than random thievery. No offence."

"Oh, I'm not offended, Tendo. How could I be after you so generously allowed myself and the boy to stay with you for so long. Even if you did let your daughter drive him off."

"Ah. Yes, your son, a true genius at the martial arts. Such a pity that he ran away."

The two men glared at each other while behind them three young men and two young women exchanged glances in the brightly-lit Dojo. This sort of thing was a fairly regular occurrence, but still caused mild concern, since at this point it was a fifty-fifty toss-up whether the two elder martial artists would shake hands and forget about it, or devolve into a shouting match followed by a certain amount of fighting. The students watched for a while longer, then decided that this was going to be one of the longer insult sessions and went back to sparring with each other. Eventually their teachers would get back to the actual teaching part of the process.

There had originally been eight students in the first group to join up with the re-established Saotome-Tendo, or Tendo-Saotome, depending on who you asked, school. In the beginning they had been taught out of part of a warehouse a couple of kilometres away but as the fortunes of the Dojo improved the old training hall was repaired to the point it could be used again. A couple of months ago they had moved in. Just after the move two of the students had become disillusioned with the teachers and had left, and a few weeks ago another had left for family reasons, although she said that she'd be back one day. So far no one else had joined although recently their had been interest from a few other teenagers and a couple of adults.

Soun reached the point of punching Genma in the face, which normally meant that in about five minutes one or other of them would end up in the koi pond. None of the students could understand quite why that particular place seemed to always be where the fight ended, but it invariably was. The first time they had witnessed the sudden change that overtook Sensei Saotome one of the women and two of the men had fainted, but by now they simply took it as one of those things that happened. This _was_ Nerima after all. Once more the students stopped what they were doing to watch as the fight in progress rapidly left the building, following it outside and around the house, making bets as to which Sensei would end up wet. The two girls, who had picked Soun, smiled and collected their winnings, before going back inside followed by three irritated young men, one dripping and grumbling Master, and an irritatingly smug one with a smile on his bespectacled face.

Nabiki turned away from the window of her room, having been watching the antics of her father and Genma in the back yard. The sight brought back memories of Ranma and his father fighting in a similar manner, fights that also usually resulted in one or other participant getting dunked. She was slightly surprised to realise that at some level she somewhat missed them. Just over three years had passed since she'd last seen the pig-tailed boy. She wondered what, at twenty-one, he now looked like. Likely he had grown a little taller, probably in both forms, but she guessed not by much. He'd never had the build of someone who would reach a great stature, although he had been extremely well developed even so. Once or twice she'd caught sight of him in the bathroom, genuinely by accident unlike what she suspected of Akane, and had been quietly impressed.

With a small private smile she sat in front of her computer and resumed reading the various police reports and other information she'd managed to cajole out of various contacts in official positions in the seven months since she'd read the one concerning the rapist in the park. In total nine reports had turned up that met her qualifications, and a further four that she was by now sure were unconnected. The most recent was only two months old, while the first one dated back to just under six months after the night of the great disaster. As the police had done before her she had found no real connection between them in either method or location but a feeling in her gut made her sure at a level she couldn't ignore that they were all the result of one person, that being Ranma. In another life she would have made an exceptional detective.

Dull thuds and a faint shout from the direction of the Dojo made her glance up for a moment. By the sounds of it Akane had joined the lessons. The two fathers had begun teaching her formally some months ago, Genma unwilling to get involved with her martial arts education until Soun did. They had known for some time that she was actually quite good in some respects, but hadn't really realized just how bad she was in many others. Soun had been very disappointed when he found out quite how much she had concentrated on attack to the exclusion of defence. The training that Ranma had been surreptitiously giving her in the guise of not giving her any training at all had improved her speed considerably, but since he'd left she had picked up even more bad habits.

Her father had always believed her to be reasonably good, and compared to the average martial artist she was better than average, but brute strength and an overwhelming attack didn't win fights against the sort of people Ranma had gone up against. Even when she attacked and nearly killed Ryoga, it was only the unexpectedness of her first blow that had allowed her to keep him off balance enough to press her advantage. If he had ever truly defended himself she'd most likely have soon found herself on the defensive. In Nabiki's opinion, one she shared with both the fathers and Ranma himself, she mainly lacked discipline and the ability to not let her temper get away from her. If she could overcome those defects she had it in her to be a decent but probably never spectacular practitioner of Anything Goes, which would put her in a very high class of martial artist generally. Her sister wasn't convinced that she would succeed, although she couldn't deny that she certainly had enthusiasm.

Another yell was followed by a crash and Nabiki winced slightly, adding a couple of thousand yen to the list of new damage in her head, not looking away from the screen. She was genuinely impressed with the fact that both the older men had kept at the teaching as long as they had, with no signs yet that they intended to give up. There had been a number of teething problems at the start, partly due to Soun being rusty and Genma being calibrated to teach someone at Ranma's level, which almost no-one was or indeed could be. Eventually they had managed to work out the bugs and had in fact become pretty good teachers. Soun was becoming much more like the father that she remembered, while his friend wasn't quite as big a pain as he had been. That wasn't to suggest she liked him very much though. At least the teaching school was on the verge of becoming financially independent, and even possibly mildly profitable.

Trying to ignore the noises drifting over the house and into her open window she concentrated on the work in hand. She was once more going over the various reports she had determined detailed places and events Ranma had been involved with, trying to pin down some sort of pattern. It wasn't easy, if it hadn't been for her familiarity with the martial artist and her certainty that the reports were related she would have given up months ago. Sitting back having re-read the latest one yet again, she pulled at her lower lip absently while considering it, then opened another document. This one contained a number of items of interest to her, ones she had gleaned from various sources and that on the face of it were unrelated to either the police reports or her search.

There were reports on various apparent mystical goings on in and around Tokyo, such as demon attacks, magical girl sightings, even events that seemed more hearsay and rumour than fact. In addition was a list of various petty crimes, some solved, some not, that had attracted her attention. A few of them had the official police reports included, others came from reports in newspapers and online. All in all it was a fairly eclectic mix that to most people would have seemed pretty much random, but to her mind had something that interested her. Not truly something in common, or anything as crude as a pattern, more just a sort of vague trend. She scrolled through the list of reports, photos, and a small amount of video, looking yet again for the elusive thread that would tie things together into a whole.

The brunette wasn't even sure that whole was the one she hoped it was, but she _was_ sure it was there. Somewhere. Eventually she sighed and slumped into her chair, turning off the monitor. It wasn't going to come to her this time.

Three days later she received another batch of information from a contact at a police station in a ward on the other side of the centre of Tokyo, along with a short note that suggested the contact would very much like to renegotiate his rate. A quick phone call during which no specific threat was made, but several were vaguely implied, left the young sergeant sweating slightly and regretting ever having become involved in any way with that damn Tendo girl. She put the wind up him more than some fairly unpleasant Yakuza thugs he'd had to deal with recently did, yet he was hard-pressed to explain exactly why. Putting the phone down Nabiki smiled icily in satisfaction then began looking through the information she had acquired.

Most of it was irrelevant but a couple of items stood out to her. Re-reading them very carefully she looked at the single photo enclosed, which showed a blurry image of a frankly unbelievable creature that most outside Tokyo would have dismissed as an obvious fake. Being a resident of Furinkan the middle Tendo sister accepted it as simple fact, then ignored it. The demonic creature apparently in the throes of expiring wasn't what she was interested in, neither were the three teen-aged girls in skimpy and impractical clothing cavorting around the creature with odd weapons. What _was_ interesting was something barely visible on the extreme edge of the photo, a perfectly straight line of actinic purple-white light that looked like a special effect, originating from a source off-camera and intersecting the head of the demon. She was suddenly positive she'd seen something very much like that once before, under circumstances she'd never forget.

"Fuck me," she breathed faintly, staring at the photo, magnifying it on the screen to see if she could make out any more detail. "Could it really be...?" Looking through the attached text she saw that the photo had been taken in a ward she had never visited, one she had heard of as something of a hot-bed of odd demon attack events. The place apparently suffered from demons and magical girls in almost equal quantities, people being hard-pressed to say which group caused more damage. She'd heard at least one wag comment that on balance the inhabitants would prefer that the magical girls leave them to the demons rather than the reverse. The civic cost of their battles was apparently on a scale that would have made the NWC at it's peak feel that it wasn't trying hard enough.

Digging further into the report, then calling her police contact back and pushing him slightly further down the path to developing an ulcer, she found out that the photo originated from a part of the ward in question that encompassed a small but world renowned private medical and research university. Apparently it was also well off the normal patch of this particular group of magical girl demon hunters, which had sparked the curiosity of several groups that followed such things. This led her to some news groups and forums where she found even more information, some from this recent event a week ago, some dating back several years.

It took her another week to exhaust all the sources she could find on this new avenue of enquiry but in the end she had drawn some fascinating conclusions. The entire ward suffered from various semi-random demon incursions, for reasons she was unable to determine, which were normally dealt with moderately efficiently but in a remarkably overblown manner by one or other group of magical girls, as was the custom in those parts. The exception was a small area in the vicinity of the university which seemed to have almost no demon attacks, or for that matter demon hunter attacks. The ones that _did_ occur seemed mainly to be accidental, quite likely the result of one party chasing the other into or through this area.

One thing that stood out was that interactions between demons and the hunters thereof often ended very abruptly when they crossed an ill-defined boundary around the general university area, sometimes with the extremely efficient and ruthless elimination of the demon in question, sometimes with the apparent just as sudden retreat of same, and at least once with the demon hunter involved having the shit kicked out of it while the demon watched from the sidelines and by all accounts laughed it's arse off. The other, unique, aspect about this was that no damage to anything other than the participants in these fights seemed to happen most of the time, or if it did it was quickly repaired. No one outside the limited audience of a couple of small internet forums seemed to realise anything odd was going on and even they hadn't put it all together for some reason.

Very interestingly, this state of affairs had begun fairly suddenly approximately two and a half years ago. Before that the place was just as likely to get hit as anywhere else in the general area. It was clear that something had changed back then, and the brunette had an idea what that could be. The question was what to do about it.

Assuming she was correct and this had something to do with the long-missing martial artist, the implication was that he was living in or somehow connected with that specific area, defending it against something he felt wasn't welcome. If that was the case how would he react to any of the people from his former life turning up on his doorstep? If she gave or sold her suspicions to pretty much _any_ of the various parties who still wanted to find him, there was no doubt that _all_ of them would find out sooner or later and go looking for him. That sounded to her like a recipe for disaster on a remarkable scale.

One issue she was having trouble with was that most of the old crew were more or less beginning to get their lives in order. Throwing Ranma back into the mix would scupper that, and presumably do much the same thing to him. How he would react to such a thing was an unknown but it was unlikely to be positively. Ukyo, certainly, seemed quite happy with Konatsu and Nabiki considered them both friends. She didn't want to cause them any problems. Sitting back and considering this thought some more brought the realisation, along with a slight shock of worry, that they were among the very few people she really did think of as friends rather than acquaintances or pawns.

The other thing that slowly dawned on her was that she no longer really had much interest in causing Ranma any more problems either. If he had managed to build a new life for himself, was it something she could bring herself to disrupt? '_Perhaps I have a conscience after all, despite what everyone says,_' she thought with a wry grin. Shaking her head at the thought she reached out and turned off the monitor, stood, stretched, then went to the window to look out over the yard. What to do?

Noticing Akane walking back towards the house she sighed slightly. Her younger sister was still bound and determined to find the young man, even though she didn't talk about it nearly as much nowadays. There was little doubt that if she got even a hint of a possible location for him she'd be off like a shot intending to drag him back by his pigtail. Not that she had much chance of that. If what Nabiki suspected was true, the results of the blue-haired young woman actually meeting the martial artist again would probably be epic and perhaps lethal. The evidence suggested that any bias he had against striking a woman, at least one who was attacking him, had long since vanished. Nabiki was under no illusions about how her sister would stand up to an enraged Ranma if he decided to go all out. The battle would be short, violent, and probably visible from space.

In some ways she felt it might be best to simply forget about what she'd worked out. Two things stood in the way of that, though; Her curiosity, which would keep her awake at night until she found out whether she was correct, and concern for her other sister. She still missed her terribly, so if there was the slightest chance that finding Ranma would lead her to Kasumi she had no choice. "Damn," she mumbled, turning away from the window. "I guess I'm going to Minato tomorrow."

Hearing Nodoka calling everyone to come for lunch Nabiki left the room, closing the door on the way out, completely unaware that she had been, as on many occasions in the past, observed and overheard in the room she believed private. The observer left soon after she did.

* * *

The gently bleeping phone was answered after half a dozen rings.

"Hi."

"You're sure?"

"I understand. It was inevitable, sooner or later. It's taken longer than I expected, actually."

"Yes, we're pretty much ready. It all depends on whether she tells anyone else first."

"Thanks, my friend. You've been a lot of help over the years."

"Yes, the usual place and amount. I'll let you know how it goes."

"Goodbye, Sasuke."

The person who had answered pressed the disconnect button, dropped the phone back on the table, then turned to his companion who was listening with silent interest. Meeting concerned brown eyes, he smiled. "We're going to have a visitor soon."

"Oh, my."


	4. Chapter 4

As it happened it was four days later that Nabiki set out on her visit to the area she suspected contained an errant martial artist/fiancé to her sister. A number of things cropped up that she had no choice but to deal with, various bills needed to be paid, and above all she had to make sure she could travel without being followed or in any way suspected of anything. Assuring herself of this last point was nearly a day's work in itself. Finally, though, she left the Tendo residence early one morning heading for the nearest train station with her cellphone turned off just in case. Taking a train in a different direction she carefully checked for a tail, switching trains three times before she was sure she wasn't being followed. After travelling nearly twice the actual distance between home and her destination she finally arrived at the station one stop away from her target, as another precaution, taking a taxi the final two kilometres.

After some thought she had decided to start at the university itself, then work her way outwards. She had photos of both forms of Ranma and of Kasumi, with the hope that someone might recognise either of them. It seemed a faint chance, none of her contacts in the area had ever come up with anything, but it was worth a try. Heading for the university admissions office she found herself talking to a pleasant middle-aged woman who, after some buttering up and a decent bribe, was willing to look at the photos. This drew a blank. She was sure she'd never seen any of the three people shown, and as she told Nabiki, she had worked in that position for twenty years and had a very good memory for faces. Thanking her with an inner feeling of mild disappointment, the Tendo woman left the office and walked outside to sit in the sun while trying to decide on another approach.

To be honest she hadn't expected that avenue to bear fruit, but it had been an obvious first attempt. Deciding to ask around in the various cafés around the campus, she picked a direction more or less at random and started off.

Three hours later she was getting irritated. She'd spoken to dozens of people, spending quite a lot of cash on '_incentives,_' with nothing to show for it but sore feet. Sitting at a table outside the last café she made some notes, looking up to order a coffee when the waitress stopped by. Sipping it appreciatively when it came the brunette considered her options. She could give up, chalk the whole thing up to coincidence, go home, and forget about it. The idea made her snort derisively. She could expand her search, going further out into the community and hoping that she found something. A twinge of pain from her abused feet made her reluctant to do that unless necessary. Or she could sit here for a while, trying to come up with another plan. That seemed like the easiest solution, at least for the next half hour or so. Smiling slightly to herself she ordered another coffee and a sandwich, kicking off her shoes and massaging one foot.

Half an hour or so later a pretty brunette girl of average height, casually dressed in the normal student attire of a T-shirt with the name of a popular band on it and tight jeans, her long braided hair tied off with a bright red silk bow, came up to her, looking uncertain. Pushing her stylish sunglasses up her nose with one finger she glanced around nervously, then leaned closer. Intrigued, Nabiki watched with curiosity, waiting for the girl to speak. "Um, excuse me, but someone mentioned you were looking for some people?" The middle Tendo sister nodded with a faint smile. This was the sort of thing she was used to.

"Yes. Why, do you have some information for me?" The girl glanced around again, then pulled out one of the other chairs and sat. Leaning forward she lowered her voice a little.

"I might have. You have photos, I'm told?"

"Yes." Pulling out the now somewhat dog-eared pictures Nabiki dropped them on the table in front of the girl, who spread them apart with one hand while nibbling a nail on the other. She inspected them carefully, picking each on up in turn and looking at it over her sunglasses which had slipped down her nose again. Nabiki noticed that she kept coming back to the one of Ranma's female form and smiled internally.

"OK. I might have seen some of these people, I think," the girl said, putting the photos on the table in a neat line, reaching out with one finger to align one of them better. Not looking at Nabiki she casually, or at least what she presumably thought was casually, said "Ah, I believe you were offering, um, payment... for information?" Her cheek was twitching a little as she quickly glanced at the face of the other woman then away again, while once more her table-mate was smiling inside.

"If you have some real information I think I could probably come up with, hmm, shall we say five thousand yen?" The girl seemed slightly taken aback.

"Um. I could get in a lot of trouble if anyone finds out I told you anything. Twenty thousand." Nabiki grinned coldly.

"Trust me, dear, you could get in a lot more trouble if you're wasting my time. Six thousand."

Looking around again, her eyes darting back and forth, the girl sweated a little. Pushing her sunglasses up her face she replied, "Eighteen thousand, and I'll tell you where I saw them." Leaning back in her chair, Nabiki considered the increasingly nervous-looking young woman for long enough to make her squirm.

"Take me to where you saw them, tell me what you know, and I'll agree to sixteen thousand." The other brunette went still for a moment then reluctantly nodded.

"OK." She pushed the photos further apart, then indicated the one of the female Ranma. "This one, I think. She looks younger in this photo, but I'm pretty sure it's her. I think she's some sort of martial artist, I've seen her doing some sort of practice. She and a friend moved in to my apartment building about eighteen months ago. They always seem to be really careful about being seen outside." Trying not to grin, Nabiki leaned forward.

"What about this one. Have you seen her?" She pushed the photo of Kasumi forward. The girl picked it up and studied it again, looking doubtful.

"It _might_ be her friend. It kind of looks like her but she's got different hair. I haven't seen her as much." Inspecting the photo some more, she finally put it back down. "Sorry, I can't be sure." Slightly disappointed but not showing it, Nabiki nodded.

"All right. Where is this apartment building of yours?"

"It's about a kilometre and a half away."

"Fine. Show me where, and I'll pay you when I'm sure you're being honest with me." The girl appeared offended.

"I'm telling the truth!" Nabiki smiled coldly.

"They always say that." The brunette looked at her oddly, then glanced around again.

"Fine. Come on. It's about ten minutes walk." They stood, the Tendo woman dropped a couple of notes on the table before following her new acquaintance out of the café and down the street. The girl struck her as a fairly new student, perhaps first or second year. Curious, she asked, "I assume you're a student here? What are you studying?"

"Sports medicine," the girl replied, constantly looking around as if she was sure they were being followed. Her obvious paranoia was becoming irritating and Nabiki had to suppress the urge to tell her to calm down. "Physiotherapy, biomechanics of athletes, that sort of thing. It's fascinating." Nabiki nodded in the right places as the girl chattered nervously, learning far more than she wanted about oxygen depletion in muscles. Eventually her continued silence seemed to make the girl sufficiently nervous to shut up and they walked the rest of the way in silence, with the brunette looking over her shoulder now and then. Reaching a block of what looked like high-end apartments that backed onto a large park, the girl stopped.

"This is it. That girl and her friend are in the apartment on the top floor." Nabiki inspected the building, which had a high-security door access control panel next to the main entrance. It looked like a nice place to live and as a result quite expensive. If it was indeed Ranma that the girl had seen, how did he afford this? Looking up at the front of the building she saw that it probably didn't have many flats in it, perhaps one or two per floor, each of them with a balcony at the front. The top one also seemed to have some sort of roof garden from what she could see from the ground.

"Expensive place." The girl nodded.

"Very. My grandfather pays for my apartment, but I don't get much money otherwise. So..." She held out her hand looking embarrassed. Nabiki smiled.

"Get me inside and I'll pay you." With a slight sigh the brunette nodded, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a swipe card. She walked to the door and ran it through the reader which beeped and illuminated a small green light, then she pulled the door open. Nabiki walked through with satisfaction. The girl followed her inside, leading the way to an elevator. Pressing the button and looking around nervously, she jumped a little when the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Waving Nabiki inside she once more followed, pressing the top button once inside.

"Only building residents can access the top floor. There's a swimming pool up there as well." She swiped her card through the reader next to the control panel, the doors slid shut, and the elevator ascended. When it stopped and the door opened she stuck her head out, looking quickly around. Waving Nabiki out she held the elevator door open with her foot and held out her hand again. "Down at the end on the left. Apartment 601." The Tendo woman glanced in the indicated direction then nodded.

"Good. Thank you." She pulled out a roll of notes and peeled off the negotiated amount, handing it to the girl and putting the rest back in her pocket, "Here you go." The girl took it and smiled a little uncertainly. As she stepped back into the elevator the doors slid silently shut. Satisfied, Nabiki turned and headed in the direction the girl had indicated, finding that at the end of the corridor was only one door, with a discrete 601 in gold numbers on it above the lens of a security viewer. Below that was something that made her heart miss a beat. A small sign in the form of a wooden duck, painted yellow, hung from a screw in the door. It looked very familiar, since for years she, Akane, and Kasumi had ones exactly like it hanging on the doors of their respective bedrooms, each with their names on. This one was unmarked but she felt it couldn't possibly be a coincidence.

Raising a hand which she noted with inner surprise was trembling a little, she knocked on the door next to the wooden duck. There was no immediate answer, so she knocked again, slightly more firmly. With a faint click the door opened a little, apparently not having been shut properly. After a moment's thought she gently pushed on it, watching as it swung open to reveal a hallway with a number of doors opening off it, some coats hung up on the wall inside above a rack for shoes. Tentatively stepping inside she looked around curiously. There were a couple of house-plants on a table a few metres down the hallway, three or four paintings and a pair of prints hung on the walls, a nice carpet on the floor. The walls were painted a muted yellow with white trim on the woodwork. Walking slowly down the hallway she glanced into each open door as she came to it, seeing sparse but nice furnishings, a well-equipped kitchen, three rooms that seemed to be bedrooms, only one of which appeared to be in current use, and a large living room that obviously opened out onto the balcony at the front of the building.

So far she hadn't seen any sign of life, but for some reason couldn't bring herself to call out. '_This is going to be very awkward if it turns out that Ranma __**doesn't**__ live here,_' she thought wildly to herself, trying not to laugh hysterically. The quiet was starting to get to her. Hearing a faint noise from somewhere behind her she whirled around, looking about for the cause. Nothing was visible but she noticed something she'd missed up to now, that the hallway turned away from the front of the building just beside the living room, heading towards the back. The apartment seemed to occupy the entire top floor, nearly as large as the entire Tendo house. Cautiously heading down the corridor towards the back of the building she came to a closed set of sliding doors. There were faint noises coming from beyond that point which sounded like footsteps.

Taking a deep breath she slowly slid one side of the double doors to the side. It silently opened to reveal that the entire back half of the apartment was one enormous room, floored in polished wood, with several large windows overlooking the park beyond. There were a pair of skylights in the ceiling which was a good three metres up. All this she took in at glance, before her attention was drawn to the figure in the middle of the room.

The person, tall, female, brown hair in a ponytail down her back to her waist, dressed in loose black silk clothing, was concentrating completely on an intricate martial arts kata, one Nabiki instantly recognised as belonging to the Anything Goes school. She was performing it smoothly and flawlessly at considerable speed, smiling gently to herself. Stepping further into the room Nabiki watched with her heart beating at twice the normal speed. She had seen Ranma perform this kata dozens of times, but this woman wasn't Ranma.

It was, of course, Kasumi. She turned towards her sister and smiled more widely at her, apparently unsurprised at seeing her standing there with a dumbstruck expression on her face, unable to speak. Nabiki got the sudden impression that Kasumi had been aware of her presence the entire time she'd been in the apartment. Taking a couple of steps towards her long-missing sister she raised one hand, then slowly let it fall to her side, watching as the woman continued the long and complex series of motions, a graceful dance with deadly potential. Just as she was finishing Nabiki heard the noise from behind her of the door to the room closing with a click, spinning around to see the young woman who had led her here. The brunette dropped her hand from the door and walked past Nabiki to meet Kasumi who was coming in the other direction. They met, then hugged, while the middle sister watched agape, unable to work out what was going on. Both turned to smile at the stunned Tendo woman, who saw they were holding hands.

"Hello, Nabiki. We were expecting you three days ago," said the young woman with a cocky grin, one she recognised with shock even if the face it was on was one she'd never seen before today. While she was staring in disbelief the girl shimmered as if seen through a heat haze, shrinking slightly, hair brightening and changing colour. A second or two later the once-familiar sight, last seen three and a half years ago, of Ranma in her female form grinned at Nabiki.

Who promptly fainted.


	5. Chapter 5

Nabiki opened her eyes and stretched, staring at the ceiling with mild interest. The bed felt amazingly comfortable today, making her reluctant to get up. Her eyes drifted shut and she relaxed. Five seconds later her eyes snapped open again, she tensed, then slowly lifted her head and looked around. This wasn't her room. Memory flooded back, but what she remembered was so absurd it couldn't possibly be true. Could it?

Turning her head towards the window in the side of the room near the head of the bed she was lying in she could see buildings in the distance she recognised as the university. With a sigh she dropped her head back onto the pillow. "It really happened," she muttered, before pushing the covers back and sitting up. Looking at her watch she saw it was now mid afternoon, she must have been asleep for a couple of hours. Stretching again she yawned, then got to her feet and explored the room, which was nicely furnished and painted a delicate egg-shell blue. Briefly examining a painting hanging on the wall, a watercolour by an artist she vaguely remembered hearing about, she ended up standing by the window looking out onto the street.

The view out over the local area was very good, showing off the university campus well, a kilometre away to the east. Down at street level a few people were walking about, with the occasional car going past. Overall it seemed like a nice quiet area, one that was pretty affluent. It made the question of how Ranma and Kasumi could afford to live here even more puzzling. This apartment, for example, must cost a fortune to rent. It was huge and well-appointed, not to mention the location.

Ranma. Kasumi. She'd finally found them, but was left with more questions than ever. Not the least of which was, how the hell had Ranma pulled off that stunt? He, She, had looked and even acted completely differently, fooling her totally. Even allowing for some sort of shape changing magic, which she was kind of used to after all, the mannerisms, voice, everything, had been completely convincing. The thought that it was Ranma, not the young female university student she presented herself as, would never have occurred to her. If nothing else, the last three years or so seemed to have made an amazing actor out of the gender changing martial artist.

Taking a deep breath, the brunette Tendo turned and walked towards the door, opening it with a determined air. She was going to find out what was going on. When she left the room she found it was one of the ones that opened off the main hallway, next to the one that seemed to be in use. Heading towards the living room she looked around, once more finding it deserted. This time, though, she could clearly hear sounds coming from the large room at the rear of the apartment and went in that direction, questions burning in her mind.

The double doors were open so she went through, to find Kasumi and Ranma, who was still female but now wearing the same black silks as the older girl, sparring in the middle of the room. She watched, fascinated and somewhat shocked, as her gentle older sister attacked the smaller red-head with the level of ferocity that she'd have expected from Akane, but also with a skill that was clearly orders of magnitude past what their younger sister could bring to bear. If it wasn't for the fact that both women were grinning happily the middle sister would have thought that they were in a fight for their lives.

As it was the bout was clearly just for practice. Ranma deflected the strikes that rained down on her, her opponent moving with blurring speed, dodging and leaping about to the sound of arms and legs striking each other. Both participants were clearly enjoying themselves, even as they exchanged blows that could shatter concrete. Nabiki's eyes bugged out as her sister suddenly performed a standing front flip right over the head of the younger red-head, to land behind her with her arm around her neck and the other hand pressed lightly against her spine.

"Brilliantly executed, Kas," Ranma said with a broad smile, before somehow spinning around and redirecting the pressure so that Kasumi was now the one in a precarious situation. The move was so fast Nabiki couldn't determine what she'd done or how. "You're getting very good at that move." The red-haired woman released her opponent, both of them stepping apart and bowing formally to conclude the match. They turned to look at the middle sister, who was gaping with her mouth hanging open, before exchanging amused glances. Ranma walked towards the door. "I'm going to change. Meet you in the living room." As she walked past Nabiki she gently reached out and closed the other woman's mouth with a faint click. "Still take your coffee with milk, Nabiki?"

The brunette nodded weakly as the martial artist left the room. She followed the black-clad red-head with her eyes for a moment before turning them back towards her older sister who was approaching her with a familiar smile, one that seemed somehow happier she remembered. Kasumi stopped in front of her, looking her up and down, before opening her arms. "I've missed you, sister," she said softly. The other woman stared for a long moment before launching herself at her older sister with a wordless cry, grabbing her and hugging her hard, tears running down her face. Kasumi held her tightly, resting her head on the shorter woman's shoulder, her own eyes glistening.

A few minutes later the elder sister had led her still-crying sibling back into the living room and was sitting beside her on the L-shaped sofa that fitted into the corner of the room, still holding her. Ranma, male now and dressed in black jeans with a red silk shirt, came into the room with a tray full of drinks. Putting it on the low table near the sofa he poured three cups of coffee, putting one in front of each of the women, before taking a seat on the other arm of the sofa and leaning back, sipping his own coffee and watching them silently.

Eventually Nabiki sniffled, wiped her eyes, and pushed herself upright on the sofa. Reaching for her cup she brought it to her mouth and gulped a few mouthfuls of the hot drink, finding it strong and just the way she liked it. Holding the cup in both hands, allowing the heat to warm fingers that seemed to have gone cold despite the pleasant ambient temperature of the room, she composed herself, glancing between the other two. They looked at each other for a moment, understanding seeming to pass, then Ranma nodded. Studying Nabiki he smiled a little, putting his cup down on the table and leaning forward.

"So, how have you been?" She stared at him for a long while before a slight smile twitched one corner of her mouth. He responded with a grin, and before she knew it she was howling with laughter. The other two joined in, the living room ringing with their amusement for some little while. Eventually it wound down and she wiped her eyes, still giggling.

"You bastard. Thanks, I needed that." Graciously he tilted his head towards her with a smile.

"You're welcome."

Looking at him curiously, she assessed the martial artist carefully. Since she'd last seen him he'd grown slightly and filled out a bit, all of it obviously hard muscle. His face was a bit more mature, harder adult planes and features replacing or supplanting the traces of adolescence left at eighteen, now he was nearly twenty-two. She'd noticed that his female form, while still petite, was noticeably taller and if anything even more developed than before. In both cases the changes were all for the positive. The man sitting across from her was someone she could easily see almost any woman being attracted to, even more than as the boy she remembered. Likewise, the red-headed young woman was truly beautiful, even more than the girl had been.

Switching her gaze to her sister she inspected her as well. Kasumi looked much like she remembered but carried herself with an air of assurance that she hadn't had before, a quiet competence overlaid on the serene gentle woman of old. It gave the impression of a mother figure who could also pull the arms off an attacker and beat him to death with them, all the while looking apologetic for the inconvenience.

The mental image made her giggle, Kasumi smiling at her even without knowing why she was amused. Reaching out she hugged her older sister again. "God, I've missed you, sis," she whispered. Releasing the older woman she once more glanced between her and Ranma. "Will you tell me what's going on? How did you get so good at martial arts. _Why_ did you? Where have you been? What are you doing? And _you!_" She pointed at Ranma, who looked mildly amused. "How the hell did you _do_ that, that... whatever the hell it was! You fooled me completely." He grinned, accepting the comment as praise.

"Thanks. That was a lot of fun." She glared at him, then giggled, not sure whether to laugh or scream.

"It wasn't meant as a compliment!"

"I know." He was still grinning, and in the end all she could do was laugh. Kasumi smiled at both of them, drinking her coffee and watching.

"Ranma, you're still an idiot. I've missed you too." He appeared both slightly surprised and rather pleased.

"Of all of them, you're the only one I did miss, Nabiki. You were a pain in my rear, but at least I could talk to you as a person. The only other one like that came with me." He smiled at her, then glanced at Kasumi, who was looking at him with what Nabiki could easily see was much more than simply fondness. They obviously meant a lot to each other. For some reason this made her considerably happier.

Kasumi asked, "Would you like to stay overnight? It's going to take quite a long time if you want to hear the whole story. We've got plenty of room."

Glancing around Nabiki could only agree with this. The apartment was huge. "I guess I could. I'll have to call home and tell them something though, they're expecting me back tonight." Ranma tossed her a cell-phone unexpectedly, making her blink as Kasumi's slender hand came out of nowhere faster than she could follow to snag it before it could hit her in the face. Her sister handed it to her with a slight smile.

"Use this one, it's a special one that can't be traced to us. Just in case." She looked at him curiously, this seemed paranoid even to her, also very high tech for the Ranma she remembered. Still, she accepted it and dialled the number of the Tendo residence. Nodoka answered, and after exchanging pleasantries Nabiki told her that she'd bumped in to a friend from university who had invited her out for the night, so as a result she was going to stay over rather than come back very late. The older woman thought this was a good idea, told her to have a nice time, then bid her goodbye. Disconnecting the phone she handed it back to the martial artist who put it back wherever he'd gotten it from. When he looked back to her she was grinning at him, having just noticed that his hair was still in the braid that he'd worn as the brunette student, complete with the red bow.

"The hairstyle suits you better as a woman, Saotome," she said with amusement in her voice. He laughed.

"I know. It took ages to braid it like this though, and I'm going out as a female later, so I left it." Reaching back he pulled his braid over his shoulder in the manner that Kasumi had always affected, looking pleased with the effect. Both women laughed.

"He's quite vain about his appearance, even more so when he's a she," Kasumi loudly whispered to her sister, her eyes twinkling. Ranma looked outraged.

"That's only because I look good." He waved the end of the silly-looking braid at the sisters, who exchanged glances then giggled. Carefully adjusting the bow he flipped the braid behind him, looking satisfied, then grinned. Nabiki watched with amusement.

"You seem a lot better adjusted to your female aspect now," she commented. He nodded happily.

"A very good person helped me a lot with that. I came to realise it's only another side of me, one that's as much me as any part could be. There's no point fighting it, better to accept it and move on." It was clear who he was talking about, Nabiki could see how proud Kasumi looked at his words.

"So you've stopped looking for a cure?" Suddenly serious, he met her gaze with his own.

"There _is_ no cure. I'm sure of that."

"But, the springs..."

"Mix. They don't replace. Taro is proof of that, but no one seems to have worked it out." Nabiki's eyes widened at the concept.

"Ah. Yes, I see, it is pretty obvious. I wonder why we didn't see it before?" He smirked a little.

"Everyone was so hung up on the mistaken idea that if one spring changes you, logically another one should change the change. It does, but not in a generally useful way."

After a moment's thought Nabiki asked, "Surely Cologne should know that? Why would she try to bribe you with the Spring of Drowned Man water? For that matter, why did the Jusenkyo Guide send you some for a wedding present?" Ranma's face hardened.

"Oh, I'm absolutely certain Cologne knows full well that there is no cure, and that the results of mixing the springs would be... unwelcome. I'm not sure _why_ she never brought it up, I'll admit, but my suspicion is that she was working on the basis that by holding that over me she could control me. She may think that If she'd come right out and told me there was no cure I'd have been even less cooperative with her plans." He didn't look happy, his expression showing there was a good deal of anger left in him over the way he'd been used by the Amazons. "As far as the Guide goes, I'm kind of puzzled. Certainly he should know about the effects of mixing the springs, but he acted for a long time like it was a cure. Perhaps he was acting under the influence of the Amazons? No idea. One day I'll have to ask." Nabiki nodded slowly, pondering the implications and the possible causes of the Guides behaviour.

"I don't think either Mousse or Shampoo know about it either," Ranma added. "Mousse particularly. I know he'd love to be rid of his curse, the fight over that damn water proved that. Shampoo, _maybe, _she tends to follow Cologne's orders, but even there I kind of doubt it." He shrugged. "It's all a bit strange. I've put it down mainly to the Amazons being both secretive and authoritarian."

"Did you look for a different cure?" He nodded.

"For a while. I know some pretty good magic users, and after we... left... I spent a couple of months talking to a few. Everyone who looked into it agreed that the Jusenkyo magic is horribly powerful, very old, and completely unbeatable. At least without paying a price that sane people would be unwilling to pay." He looked a little haunted for a moment, then shook his head. "No, once you've got this curse you're stuck with it for good. That's kind of the point. Luckily, I had help realising that at least in my case it isn't really a curse."

Kasumi interjected, "It took some time to convince him completely, but even before the wedding fiasco he was slowly working this all out and coming to terms with it. If it hadn't been for his, um, _unhelpful_ upbringing with Genma, he'd probably have been able to deal with it much earlier." She momentarily seemed as irritated as Nabiki had ever seen her, a mild frown crossing her face. "That man has a lot to answer for..." Ranma smiled at her.

"Don't get all worked up, Kas. Sooner or later he'll pay for his actions, one way or another." Returning his attention to the other sister he watched her face for a moment, then added with a sly look, "All that said, it turns out that with the right methods and a lot of practice, the curse can be... useful." She looked at him with a raised eyebrow wondering what he was talking about, then nearly choked on her coffee when he suddenly turned female without the aid of cold water.

"Ack! What the fuck?" she managed, coughing violently. Kasumi deftly relieved her of her mug and slapped her on the back at the same time while shooting an evil look at her companion.

"That wasn't very nice, Ranma," she scolded. The red-headed woman looked abashed although the corners of her mouth were twitching a little.

"Sorry." They both waited for Nabiki to regain her composure. Eventually she managed to clear her throat of misplaced coffee, then glared at the red-head, who grinned back. Even with the apparent shape change earlier in the practice room, the sudden shift of gender had taken her by surprise.

"How did you do that, Saotome?" she demanded. The other woman looked satisfied with the reaction she had caused, bright blue eyes glinting with humour in the late afternoon sunlight.

"Lots and lots of practice, mainly." Nabiki didn't seem satisfied so she expanded on her subject. "It's kind of a hybrid of ki control, magic, and meditation. I finally figured out how to make the curse think it's been triggered, by fooling the bit that looks for hot or cold water. It's not perfect, water still makes me change unless I'm ready for it and concentrating, but it's a huge improvement. One day I may be able to suppress the water part completely but that will probably take years of practice. The best part is that I'm _almost_ certain I can stop any changes to the curse, such as it being locked, now. Not that I've had reason to try, but the method I've worked out seems plausible." She seemed very pleased with herself. The middle sister was impressed and a little awed.

"How did _you_ learn _magic_ of all things?" She found she wasn't nearly as surprised as most people would have been, remembering her thoughts over the years that the martial artist seemed to be able to learn anything he or she had an interest in. The woman shrugged.

"Just kind of picked it up. Like I said, I know quite a lot of magic users. I watched what was happening whenever I was near one, and I've been around a hell of a lot of magic over the years for some damn reason. Eventually I started to make sense of what was going on, and how to do it myself. It annoys real mages as they tell me I can't possibly make it work the way I do, but whatever they say it works." The brunette stared at her for a while, then smiled.

"_Not_ an idiot. I was right."

"Thanks." They shared an amused look for a moment.

"So, earlier, that incredible bit of acting? Was that magic as well?" Ranma looked pleased with herself again.

"Partly. The change is magic, it's a sort of an illusion more than a genuine shape change. _This_ is a real shift, I am completely physically female at the moment. When I use that spell, though, it doesn't make a change as complete. But it's very flexible." She shimmered again, and a couple of seconds later the girl from earlier was sitting in her place. Another shimmer, and it was a much older woman there, then a young boy. "You see? Under all this I'm still me, but the outside looks and sounds completely convincing. It fools cameras, people, and even most magic users. Some really good ones can see through it, or at least tell that it's not real, but even they can't work out what the real person is behind it." The small boy shimmered and turned into something that made Nabiki's eyes widen and forced a strangled squeak from her throat.

The thing sitting there grinning at her from a mouth with far too many teeth was humanoid, female, and damn scary, seeing as it appeared to be some sort of demonic creature. Dark blue scales covered it under quite a lot of thin black leather, yellow slit-pupilled eyes looked back at her with cold amusement, while a forked tongue slipped between the fangs. It crossed one hoofed leg over the other knee and waved at her with a taloned hand, before shimmering again and changing back into the familiar and definitely welcome form of Ranma again.

"Holy shit," Nabiki managed after a long pause, in a small voice. Kasumi was half-smiling, half-frowning.

"Again, that wasn't very nice." The red-head grinned.

"No, but it _was_ funny." The older woman sighed.

Licking dry lips, the middle sister asked after a pause, "So, that's how you've managed to stay hidden all this time?" Ranma shook her head.

"No, not at first, although it's been very useful. I only completely mastered this about a year and a half ago. I sort of cobbled it together from several spells I learned that were a lot more limited, then worked on it until it did what I wanted. There's still room for improvement, I think, but it works pretty well as it is. Before that, we used a different approach." She gestured around at the apartment. "This place is shielded against magical surveillance, as are both of us. In the beginning that was Happosai's work. He has all sorts of interesting artefacts and techniques that he helped us with. We also picked up a lot more useful methods to stop people tracking us over the years." She produced the secure cell-phone again.

"This, for example. I got it from a contact in a part of the government I can't mention, along with a few other useful tech toys. They owed me a few favours for helping them with a... sort of a problem... a while ago." She put the thing away again. "There are a lot of other things as well. Some are just techniques, some are equipment. All together it makes disappearing possible. For a while, at least." Inspecting Nabiki, she smiled a bit. "I knew that eventually you'd find us if we stayed in Japan, but there were reasons for doing so. Although you took longer than I expected." She looked smug.

Nabiki had been listening with a slight feeling of unreality. How on earth had Ranma learned all these skills, met all these people? She was becoming aware that there was a major part of the gender-shifting martial artist's life that had completely bypassed her. Something the woman had mentioned made her think. "Happosai. You said he helped you. I always thought that was what happened when he disappeared. That night, the way he looked at both of you, it was clear that something had changed. He didn't talk about it, but it must have been about two weeks later that he left and just never came back." Ranma smiled slightly. "So where is he? No-one seems to have seen him for at least two, two and a half years."

The red-head changed back into the man, making Nabiki stare once more. The casual way he did it was weird, the way Kasumi didn't react was weirder. "Oh, he's around, some of the time. Yes, you're right, he followed us almost immediately. Once we'd established our first cover I let him know where we were, and he helped us make a much better one. When that was working, we spent nearly two years staying out of sight and training. That's when I started teaching Kas the art."

Kasumi turned to look at her sister. "He's a very good teacher. At first, me learning was just for self defence, in case our precautions didn't work. There was always the possibility that one of the fiancées or rivals would track us down and Ranma felt that if I was with him I was in danger. So he wanted to teach me to be able to hold them off long enough for him to help." She smiled at the other woman. "Neither one of us expected that I would enjoy it so much." Ranma nodded.

"Or that she'd be so _good_ at it. It's practically criminal, the raw talent for the art that nearly got wasted. She's got it in her to be almost as good as I am, and the '_almost_' is only because I've been learning since I could walk. Even so, in a bit more than three years she's learned as much as most people would in twenty." He looked very proud. "If someone does attack her now they'll regret it. Not for very long, mind you." Kasumi seemed worried.

"Oh, my, I could never kill someone, even if they were attacking me." She paused, then added with an unnerving smile, "I could probably force myself to maim them a bit though." With wide eyes Nabiki edged slightly away from her sister, making Ranma smirk.

"She's a lot better than Akane will probably ever be," he said with distinct pleasure. Kasumi appeared embarrassed, but Nabiki nodded thoughtfully. While not an expert she _was_ the daughter of a very good martial artist, and could assess the abilities of someone like that pretty well. What she'd seen in the practice room lent a lot of credence to Ranma's assertion. Her younger sister, while extremely strong, lacked a certain something that would inhibit her progressing much past the point she was now unless she fixed it. Which didn't seem likely, as it was almost certainly tied in with her temper and overall emotional immaturity.

Inspecting her older sister with new eyes, Nabiki slowly asked, "So, have you learned any ki techniques as well?" Those abilities were what turned someone like Ranma from implausibly powerful into appallingly powerful. Kasumi looked down, frowning a little.

"Well, yes, but not as much as I should have." Ranma laughed.

"Kas, don't be so hard on yourself. You know, or you should do, I've told you often enough, that you're already very good. You just need more practice." He glanced at her sister. "She's a perfectionist. I can do things that she can't yet, but she wants to. It will come with time." He seemed very pleased. "Go on, show her," he said to the older sister. With a slightly embarrassed smile Kasumi held out her hand, making Nabiki squeak with surprise when a softly glowing ball of light suddenly appeared in it. The light grew in size and intensity, stopping at the dimensions of a softball. The white-gold light looked like the woman was holding a hundred watt light bulb in her hand, but the slight tingle of static that came from it made it clear that something a lot more dangerous than a globe of thin glass was present.

Nabiki stared in amazement, watching as Kasumi quickly flipped the ball of ki from one hand to the other, then made it vanish again. "Bloody hell," she breathed, very impressed indeed. The only people she'd ever seen do anything like that were Ryoga and Ranma. Presumably Happosai could as well, but he used ki in other ways most of the time. Looking at her sister with near-awe, she smiled. "You _have_ been busy," she commented. Kasumi smiled back, pleased.

"It was a lot of work, but I'm getting there."

"She's a lot better than she thinks," Ranma said. "I'd put her overall level with ki at about where I was before I went up against Herb the second time. General use of the Art, probably around my level when I arrived in Nerima, but with a number of techniques I didn't know then. At the moment she could probably beat me at that point, and give Ryoga a seriously bad day right now. Anyone else other than Happosai, Cologne or possibly your father, would be in trouble." Nabiki was surprised by the last name. He noticed her expression. "Your father is actually very good. Probably slightly better than Pop in some ways. He's out of practice though, even with the new school."

Nabiki stared, surprised. "You know about that?" He nodded, scratching the back of his neck in a gesture she recognised as one of slight embarrassment.

"Um, yes. We've... Well, we've kind of been keeping an eye on things in Nerima." She looked hard at him, then at her sister, who also appeared embarrassed.

"How? And why?"

"You have your network, I have mine." He smiled mischievously. "They overlap." Nabiki stared at him for a long moment, light finally dawning.

"You suborned my contacts, you bastard!" The man smirked, very amused.

"Not all of them. But enough. Anyway, you did the same thing to the Kuno loonies."

"That's different!" Ranma laughed, delighted at her outrage.

"Not really. Anyway, yes, I kind of flipped a number of your people. Mostly ones in this area, but a few key ones in other places, and in Nerima. Plus I have others you don't know about."

"How the _hell_ did you _do_ that?" Nabiki was desperately curious, and knew full well he knew it.

"I could pay better, for a start. Also, the difficult ones turned out to be a lot more scared of me than of you, when I pushed a little." He paused, then grinned. "They don't know it's me, in most cases." He shimmered again and there was a much larger, very dangerous looking man sitting there, wearing dark glasses and with a scar down his cheek. "Some of them know Gorou here," he said in a much deeper voice. With another shimmer the hulking man was replaced with a tall dark-skinned woman, wearing a business suit with her long hair up in a bun. "Others know Mika." The voice this time was low and sultry. With a final shimmer, an exact duplicate of Nabiki sat on the other side of the table.

"One or two think they're talking to you, and you've told them not to talk except face to face, after the right password has been given." The duplicate watched her with a cold smile she recognised with a chill from the mirror from when she practised it.

"Fuck me..." she said faintly, staring in disbelief. The faux Nabiki suddenly grinned in a very Ranma-like manner and shimmered back into the dark-haired young man.

"You should see your face," he chuckled.

"Ranma...," Kasumi said warningly. He looked abashed.

"Sorry. I couldn't resist." The older woman gave him a long-suffering look. Nabiki's mind was reeling. This was far beyond anything she had expected, but it explained a lot of things that had been bothering her for years.

"So," she said slowly, working it out as she spoke, "Ever since you left, you've been playing me and everyone else, from only thirty kilometres away?" He nodded.

"Kind of. It's a long story, so I guess I should start at the beginning. I'll skip a lot of the boring stuff, we can go over that later if you really want to. First, though, we need to know what you intend to do." He and Kasumi both looked intently at her, making her uncomfortable.


	6. Chapter 6

Nabiki met their gazes uncertainly. "What do you mean?" Kasumi put her hand on her sister's.

"He means, are you going to tell anyone else about us? We won't stop you if that's what you want to do, but it will make things a lot easier if you don't. At least for the time being." Nabiki studied her sister, then glanced at the young man watching them both.

"I haven't decided yet. A couple of years ago, yes, I would have told the others, or more accurately, sold them the information." Ranma chuckled, while Kasumi seemed resigned. "A year ago, I might have told Akane. But now..." She trailed off, trying to work out what she meant to herself. "I'm really not sure. On the one hand, a lot of people have been looking for you for a long time. That aside, Akane really misses you, Kasumi." The older sister looked regretful.

"I know. I'm sorry."

Nabiki waved this off. "It doesn't matter, right now. I kind of know why you left, and even though for a long time afterwards I was really pissed off about it, now I tend to agree. You seem happier than I've seen you for as long as I can remember." Kasumi and Ranma shared a glance and a smile. "And I can guess some of the reasons." She paused again and the other two waited politely for her to gather her thoughts. Eventually she continued. "On the other hand, a lot of the people back home are more or less sorting themselves out. No offence, but having you around seemed to be the catalyst for a lot of trouble, even if it wasn't your fault." She looked at Ranma, surprised when he nodded thoughtfully.

"I know. I even know some of why that was. One day I'll find out the rest, and there will be a reckoning..." He didn't seem inclined to expand on that, so after a minute she resumed talking.

"Ukyo is happy with Konatsu. Tatewaki and Kodachi are staying away now, most of the time at least, the Amazons seem to have settled down to just being neighbours, and Ryoga, well, I guess you know what happened to him?" Ranma nodded, looking simultaneously regretful and highly amused.

"Oh yes, I know. I have to admit I'd have liked to have seen that. It serves the little pig right in my opinion. It's a pity it ever came to that but it was entirely his own damn fault." It was Nabiki's turn to smirk. She agreed completely.

"Akane is the one I'm really worried about. She doesn't talk about you much nowadays, but she's... well, she's not very stable, I'm afraid. I don't know what would happen if you came back into the picture. She's still obsessed with you, I think. The thing that scares me is that she might really try to hurt you." Ranma looked both thoughtful and resigned.

"That's pretty much what we thought." He paused, looking at both Tendo sisters. "I have to tell you, that wouldn't end well for her." The young man didn't look happy about it, but seemed determined. Nabiki sighed.

"I thought as much. I don't even disagree. She's obsessive, overbearing, and short tempered at the best of times nowadays. She hasn't matured much since you left." Looking at him sympathetically, she added, "I don't truly think any of that was your fault. In all probability she'd have ended up like this anyway. You were just a convenient target who happened to come along at the right time. Personally, the two people I blame, if anyone is to blame, are Tatewaki Kuno and our father." Kasumi seemed upset.

"Oh, Nabiki, is that really fair? Father?" Nabiki nodded firmly.

"Oh yes, it's fair. He dropped the ball on raising Akane properly. You did your best, I know, and I even understand _why_ he failed, but that doesn't change the fact that he _did_ fail. If mother had lived, perhaps..." She shrugged helplessly. "We'll never know." Glancing at Ranma she said, "In a way it's a good thing you _did_ come into our lives. If she hadn't had you to hit, she might have picked someone who couldn't take it. That would have ended very badly." The young man sighed, but agreed.

"Both our fathers even seem to be growing more sensible. Which isn't something I ever thought would happen, especially with yours." Ranma grinned, as did she. "Their new teaching school actually seems to be working. They've got real students, ones that genuinely want to learn, and even more surprising, _are_ learning. OK, they tend to have at least one fight every day, and insult each other all the time, but they've stuck to it for the last six or seven months so far. It's possible that they'll make a real success of it." Both Kasumi and Ranma smiled at this.

"That's the most surprising thing of all," the young man said, "It's just a shame it took so much pain and trouble before they finally started being sensible."

"I know." Picking up her mug she found the coffee was stone cold. Kasumi took it from her and went into the kitchen to make a new pot. When she came back they resumed talking.

"So. What will you do?" Ranma looked at her curiously over his coffee. She sighed.

"I guess, at least for the time being, I won't tell anyone. If I do decide to let them know, I'll tell you first. OK?" He shared a glance with Kasumi, who nodded.

"OK. That's fair enough." Nabiki sipped her coffee, thinking, then chuckled. "What?" Ranma asked, curious.

"I was just thinking about what they'd say if they knew I know where you are. How they'd react. Akane would go absolutely insane with rage. Our fathers would be wailing and crying, '_The schools must be joined! The schools must be joined!_' Shampoo would be running around shouting '_Airen!_' Complete chaos." Ranma and Kasumi glanced at each other, sharing a smile. Kasumi turned to her sister.

"Nabiki? The schools were joined three months ago." She held up her left hand, and for the first time Nabiki focussed on the slim gold ring on it. Freezing in shock, she stared at the ring, then at her sisters face, before glancing at the young man across from her. He held up his hand to show a matching ring. There was a very long silence, before the middle sister hugged her older sibling hard.

"Congratulations." She was crying again. "It took him that long to ask you?" Ranma laughed.

"_She_ asked _me_. What could I do except say yes?" The middle sister laughed with him. Kasumi had a pleased look on her face. Eventually Nabiki released her sister and sat back, grinning at the pair of them.

"I'm very happy for you both. I had wondered whether this would happen, but... It's still a surprise. I'm just sorry I missed it." She thought for a moment, then laughed again. "Oh, god, Akane would explode. And the fathers! Their greatest wish, the Tendo and Saotome schools of Anything Goes are finally one, and _they don't know!_" She was nearly unable to breath for the laughter. Ranma was looking smug.

"Oh, it gets better." He got up, walked over to the wall, and removed a decorative scroll that was hanging there. Bringing it back to the sofa he handed it to Nabiki before sitting down again. Curiously she read it, her eyes widening.

"This is..." He nodded, smirking once more.

"Official notice from Happosai naming me Grand Master of the Anything Goes Martial Arts School. He finally decided he'd taught me everything he could and said he was proud to name me his successor. The little pervert really is a little pervert, and in a lot of ways a horrible person, but he's also a damn fine martial artist and a good friend." He chuckled. "And if you'd told me four years ago that I'd ever say _that_ I'd have thought you were drunk."

"So, that means you outrank both our fathers in Anything Goes?" He nodded once more.

"Exactly. I can teach anyone I want any part of it, as well. I've been teaching Kas all sorts of interesting things." Nabiki glanced at her sister, who had a weird smile on her face. She held out her hand, from which dangled something Nabiki recognised. Dropping the scroll she hastily felt her chest, then snatched the bra from her sisters fingers.

"_**Kasumi!**_" she screeched, outraged. Ranma was nearly pissing himself with laughter.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," her older sister said with a very Ranma-like smirk.

"Oh, god, there's two of them now," Nabiki moaned quietly, making Ranma laugh even harder. Even Kasumi was giggling by this point.

"I told you he taught me everything. Some of those things are pretty strange." The young man finally stopped laughing, changing into a young woman and sitting up again from where she'd fallen while laughing. Nabiki was slowly becoming used to the apparently random gender changes, accepting it as something that the martial artist just liked doing. The fact that Kasumi didn't seem to notice or care helped in that respect. "A lot of his techniques are based on or around some really deviant things, mainly to do with women's underwear. They can obviously be used for other things as well." Kasumi handed Nabiki her wallet with a grin. Then her watch.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Kasumi," her sister said, laughing. "So the pinnacle of martial arts is a super-powered pick-pocket?" The older woman dissolved into giggles. Ranma watched with considerable humour on her face.

"That's not the _main_ use, but..." she said, shrugging.

"You two obviously deserve each other," Nabiki commented, putting her belongings away in her pocket then staring suspiciously at her sister to make sure she wasn't going for anything else. "I would never have suspected you of such a weird sense of humour, sis. This idiot is obviously a bad influence on you." She was both impressed and amused by her sister's new skills. "What else can you do?" Ranma smiled, tossing her wife one of the sofa cushions. Kasumi caught it deftly and made it vanish while Nabiki looked on with astonishment. "Hidden weapons as well?" The older woman nodded with a smile, pulling a bo staff from nowhere and balancing it on one finger, then making it disappear once more.

"It's really useful for shopping," she said, looking pleased. Nabiki stared for a moment then laughed again.

"Now that's the Kasumi I remember."

Her sister looked at her for a moment, then stood up and walked a few paces away. With a serene, very Kasumi-like smile, she faded from view until there was no trace of her. Once again Nabiki stared in shock. "Holy crap." Ranma smiled happily.

"She's really good at that. Probably better than I am. It's a kind of hybrid of some of Pop's techniques and Happosai's, which Kas and I both tweaked. Originally it fooled someone's ki sense, Happosai's method went further to true invisibility, while this method covers everything I could think of. It works on microphones, cameras, heat sensors, everything I've been able to test it with. Even magic. But it's a bit tiring so generally you don't use it for long." Nabiki twitched violently when suddenly Kasumi reappeared on the other side of her and sat down wearing an amused expression.

"Happosai was really impressed with that technique. Especially the improvements Kasumi made to it. She came up with several modifications that made it much easier to pull off." The tall woman seemed slightly embarrassed by the praise, which made Ranma giggle a little. "She's very good at making ki techniques more efficient," the red-head said, looking at her wife with pride.

"While Ranma is amazing with coming up with new techniques in the first place. We work well together." Kasumi returned the look, as Nabiki glanced between them, grinning a little.

"We _do_ have a mutual admiration club going on here, don't we?" Both of them nodded, laughing. Kasumi pulled the sofa cushion back out of wherever she had stored it and tossed it back to Ranma, who put it back where it came from.

"OK. I guess we should really tell you the whole thing." The red-head leaned back, as Kasumi put her arm around her sister's shoulders. "You remember what started all this, that damn wedding, and the total cluster fuck it became? Right. After the Dojo partially collapsed, I was under the wreckage..." Ranma recounted the story from her point of view up to the time she and Kasumi left for good. It made Nabiki uncomfortable to listen to her talk, even after more than three years her words betrayed a level of pain, loneliness, and despair that was horrifying. She was also appalled at how close they'd all come to a truly incredible disaster, if Ranma had been pushed just that tiny little bit further.

At the time she'd had no idea how stressed the martial artist was, or how powerful. Hearing about the way she'd invented a whole new set of techniques even while lying under tons of rock and wood, merely because she didn't want to face her family both impressed the hell out of her and made her nearly cry. It also scared her a little. It was apparent to her that everyone had very severely underestimated the intelligence of the person sitting across from her from day one. The sort of mind that could do what she'd seen and heard about was by no means that of a mere jock, in fact it probably rivalled her own. She was getting a sneaking suspicion that it might even exceed it. Kasumi listened silently, her eyes fixed on her currently female husband, an expression on her face that most observers would have thought neutral but Nabiki had the experience to realise was quite upset.

When Ranma finished the story of the night when everything changed, she paused, looking at the floor. "I was so happy to be leaving. _So_ happy. You can't imagine what it was like, to finally be free of being treated like a pet, no, more like a gold mine. Something that people wanted for what they can dig out of it, but not something that they really cared about personally. Even a pet would have been treated better in a lot of respects. It felt like most of the people who wanted to use me, had plans for me, wanted more than anything to stop anyone _else_ getting me. Lying under that pile of crap for three days listening to you all shouting and screaming at each other, not one person worried about _me_, just about what they wanted." She stopped again, a tear running down her cheek.

"I was so close to just giving up, letting nature take it's course. It would have been so easy. Eventually you'd have found a body, everyone could have argued about that all they wanted, but I'd be out of it. It would have been such a relief." She looked up, meeting Nabiki's shocked gaze with her own. The pain there was still evident but was nothing compared to what the middle Tendo woman remembered from that night years ago. "Then, I remembered that there was someone who was as mistreated as I was in that house. Even more so, really. I decided that I couldn't give up, I wasn't going to let life beat me. _Ranma Saotome does __**not**__ lose!_" She nearly hissed the last words, her eyes blazing. Nabiki shrank into the arms of her sister, truly frightened for a moment. The eyes, while completely human, were for a brief few seconds more terrifying than those of the illusory demoness the martial artist had become earlier.

Those eyes softened as they moved sideways to land on the face of the other Tendo woman present. "The worst night of my life, with one action from your sister, became the start of a new life." Nabiki wasn't sure which one of them the red-head was talking to. "She acted like she always does, with excessive anger and violence, but for once she was about to do something she could never take back. So I stopped it. And in the process found something I'd overlooked for two years. In a weird way I owe Akane thanks." She turned male again, smiling at his wife. "It took nearly three years, but we were finally ready to complete what we started that night." He fell silent, the two women watching him for a while. Eventually Kasumi picked up the story.

"I was completely disgusted with everyone. Even, for a while and to my shame, with Ranma. But I came to realise that it wasn't his fault, that he was as much a victim in the whole thing as I was. The difference between us was that in my case it was self-inflicted. I was trapped in a situation of my own making, one I'd slowly built around myself from the best intentions but that was gradually killing me." She smiled at her sister. "I don't blame any of you, please understand, not really. What happened needed to happen. But, it had reached a point where I had to make a decision. If I hadn't left then, I never would have, and eventually would never even want to. I knew deep down that it was going to destroy me as a person in the end but I couldn't work up the nerve to do anything about it." She reached out for her coffee mug to find it was empty. Ranma got up to make yet another pot.

"Then, in her rage, Akane tried to kill me." She shivered at the memory. "Even as she was swinging that mallet, I could see in her eyes that she knew what she'd done, but she also knew it was too late to stop it. I knew I was dead. Then..." She swallowed. "Then, I lived." Ranma came back with the coffee, sitting next to them on the sofa and holding her free hand. "By a miracle, I was saved, in a situation where I couldn't possibly _be_ saved." She shook her head slowly. "It was impossible, but it happened. When she offered me her hand, what could I do but take it? It was the only choice. For both our sakes." Gently disengaging herself from both her sister and her husband she leaned forwards and poured them all coffee, handing each of her companions a cup. Sipping hers she stared into the past for a while, then smiled.

"I've never regretted it." Turning her head to gaze at her sister, she inspected her for a moment. "I missed all of you so much, but I don't regret what I did for an instant." Nabiki nodded quietly, understanding. There was silence for a while as they all found themselves busy with their own thoughts. Eventually, Ranma moved back to the other part of the sofa so he could see both sisters more easily, picking up the story again.

"When we left, we didn't really have anywhere specific in mind, just '_away_'. I was still in quite a lot of pain from the hole in my side, Kas had some superficial burns and bruises, but neither one of us needed much medical attention. I had a fair amount of money stashed away for emergencies, money you and Pop didn't know about." He grinned at her. "We ended up just getting on a train at random, heading out of the city until we found somewhere I could put up my tent. We just collapsed into it when it was up, we were both exhausted. The next morning I was mostly healed and Kas was a lot better. We talked for a while, trying to decide what to do. I wasn't sure if she wanted to stay with me or go on her own." Kasumi smiled at him.

"I told her that there was no way I was letting her go off alone, not in the state she was in. We argued about it for quite a while. Ranma was convinced that everyone would be looking for both of us very quickly and if any of the fiancées found me with her I'd be in danger. I told her it didn't matter, I wasn't leaving her. In the end she gave up." Ranma chuckled a little.

"OK, so occasionally I _do_ lose. That time, I didn't mind at all." He drank some coffee, putting the cup down on the table. "After talking it out we decided that the best thing was to disappear completely. And basically for good. I wanted to complete my schooling at least, after that we could decide what to do. Kasumi was still interested in learning, something other than household stuff, perhaps become doctor. Perhaps not. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do except keep training in the Art, but I also wanted to broaden my horizons. In either case, we needed to hide from you lot, probably for years, we needed money, and for both we needed help." Producing a pack of chocolate chip cookies from nowhere he took a couple and handed the packet to Nabiki.

Nibbling one, he continued, "I didn't have a lot of friends. At the time, I thought none. Acquaintances, yes, lots of them, but no one I could turn to when I had real trouble. It turned out I had two friends as it happened. One was with me, the other one was a three foot tall deviant." He smiled ruefully. "Anyway, I was slightly startled when I started thinking about how many people owed me favours. People in some interesting places seemed to think that they owed me something, because at some point I'd helped them. After I thought about it for a while I started contacting a few of those people, the ones I thought I could trust. I was genuinely surprised at the response." He mentioned some names and Nabiki' eyes widened.

"Good grief. I thought _I_ had some impressive contacts!" She was extremely impressed and very curious. What on earth had he done for these people? "Hey, you mean those '_moving men'_ really _were_ Yakuza?" He nodded with a small grin.

"Oh, yes, that particular Oyabun feels he owes me a debt he can never repay. But he was willing to try. He helped a lot with discreetly moving things around, and so on. Sort of his speciality." She looked narrowly at him.

"You mean smuggling." The martial artist laughed.

"I mean he specialises in moving things that other people want moved without different people knowing about it. His organisation is very good at it indeed." She was still looking at him speculatively. He shrugged. "Crime is going to happen no matter what. Organised crime is in many ways preferable to _disorganised_ crime. I generally stay out of their business unless they do something I can't ignore. If they do, well, we came to an arrangement."

"Which is?"

"They don't hurt people who don't deserve it, and especially they don't hurt women, I leave them alone. Otherwise we have words." The young man said this in a completely flat tone that sent shivers down her back. After a moment, he went on in a lighter vein, "His group, and various other people I knew, helped quickly find us somewhere to stay off the radar and helped set up temporary identities. When it was safe for the time being I decided to contact Happosai. He came very quickly, and it turned out it was the best thing I could have done. Somehow I had really earned his respect that night, while the others had lost it completely." Ranma stopped and looked at her for a moment.

"Have you ever wondered how old he really is?" Nabiki looked puzzled.

"Well, no, not as such. I know he's pretty ancient. Contemporary with Cologne, I guess, from what I've heard, and supposedly she's something like two hundred and fifty plus years old."

"Closer to three hundred." He smiled. "The result of clean living and a pure soul?" They all looked at each other with amusement. It seemed unlikely. "Whatever. Pretty damn old. Happosai is older, by quite a bit. At least five hundred years as far as I can tell, as unbelievable as that sounds. He cheats." Kasumi produced a muffled giggle, making Nabiki look at her for a moment. Ranma smiled again.

"Anyway, old. Really, really old. And under the happy little deviant act, really, really smart. It turns out he's been saving money for a very long time indeed." The young man looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You'd know if anyone would. What effect do you think compound interest would have on money over three or four centuries?" The middle sister stared, then went pale.

"Oh, hell. He must be richer than god."

"Not quite, but it turns out he's got more resources scattered around than you'd ever believe. He helped us out financially." She was curious, money was a favourite subject of hers.

"How much did he give you?" Kasumi smiled gently at her, then waved her hand around.

"All this? We own it." Nabiki was astounded.

"You own this apartment?" Her sister shook her head still wearing the same gentle smile.

"No. We own the _building_." Nabiki almost stopped breathing.


	7. Chapter 7

"You own this building," she said after a long, _long_ pause. Kasumi nodded.

"Yes."

"The entire thing."

"Yes."

"That must be nice." Her sister's smile widened.

"Yes."

Slumping back into her seat, Nabiki looked at the coffee cup on the table. "I need something stronger than that, I think." With a grin Ranma got up, went into the kitchen, returning with two bottles of beer. Handing one to each sister he sat down again. Nabiki opened hers and drained half of it, then put the bottle on the table. Staring at it for a while, she mumbled to herself. Eventually she looked around at the others.

"The whole thing?" she asked plaintively. Ranma glanced at his wife, who seemed amused, then nodded.

"Yep. All six floors, the basement, the roof garden, the parking garage, all of it. It was a pre-wedding present from Happosai. He was sure we'd get married in the end even if we weren't." Kasumi raised a hand.

"I was." He looked at her and sighed a little.

"OK, _you_ were. I _wasn't_." She grinned.

Nabiki was still trying to wrap her mind around the concept that her sister and her brother/sister in law owned an entire apartment block in one of the most affluent areas of Minato. "Would you like to see it?" Kasumi asked. Her sister nodded numbly.

The next hour was a guided tour of the entire building, starting with the roof garden. This was huge, as it turned out, covering nearly the same area as the Dojo garden did. It was accessed from the end of the practice room, which while not quite as large as the Tendo training hall was pretty impressive, at around eighteen metres long by eight wide. There was a fairly large swimming pool in a glass enclosure at one side of the roof, including a sauna and a jacuzzi, the rest of the roof area, about twenty-five metres on a side, being devoted to the garden. There were several paths through the foliage, making the garden seem much bigger than it was. Surrounding the roof was a wall about one and a half metres high, enough to stop someone accidentally falling off but low enough that one could look over it to see the rest of the city.

Exiting the roof by means of a different staircase at the other side they found themselves in the corridor next to the elevator Nabiki had come up in. Kasumi pressed the button and the doors slid open, all of them getting in. The next floor consisted of an apartment nearly as large as the one on the top floor, the remaining space being occupied with the machinery to run the pool and jacuzzi. There was no room as large as the practice one on the top floor, but the rear room overlooking the park was still considerable in size. Nabiki noticed for the first time that there was a balcony on the rear of the building outside each apartment as well as at the front. Opening the door and walking out onto it she looked around, then down.

"This is incredible. And there's no one else living here?" she asked curiously. Kasumi shook her head.

"No. The place was empty when Happosai gave it to us six months after we left the Dojo. Even back then he was sure we'd end up together. The lower four floors have two apartments each, one of those we've set aside for him when he visits. He likes to have a private space for his... special interests." She smiled and grimaced a little at the same time, Nabiki knowing exactly how she felt. "The rest are vacant, although furnished. I go and air them out every now and then. We haven't decided what to do with the space yet. I suppose we could rent them out, they'd bring in a lot of money in this area, but up until now we've wanted the privacy for obvious reasons." She pulled the balcony door shut as they walked back in, locking it behind them.

Ranma, who was checking the kitchen appliances were in good order, turned as they came into the room. "Pretty neat, isn't it?" Nabiki nodded, still having difficulty with the concept.

"You'd get a huge amount of income if you rented out the empty apartments," she said.

"I know. But like Kas said, there were good reasons for not doing that, at least for the time being. Perhaps one day. Anyway, we're not exactly hurting for money." The three of them left the apartment, going down in the lift to the next floor. Nabiki was shown the two apartments there, both of which were still very substantial. "The other three floors are basically the same as this one. All the apartments from here down have the same floor plan." They got into the elevator again and descended to the parking garage. This had space for at least two dozen vehicles, although it was currently empty, with a powered door at the rear. Below that was the last floor, an enormous basement, covering the entire floor area of the building, supported at intervals by steel and concrete pillars. It was at least three metres high and well lit.

An odd feature that caught Nabiki's eye was a pile of concrete blocks at one end of the basement space, apparently propping up several large metal plates which, when she walked over to have a look, each turned out to be about five or six centimetres thick. The entire stack was close to thirty centimetres from front to back, lying at a steep angle against a couple of metres of concrete blocks next to the wall. The top plate had a number of scorched and melted spots on it, and a few small holes. "What's this for?" she asked. Kasumi glanced at Ranma, then at her sister.

"Target practice." Nabiki looked at her oddly.

"What?"

"Target practice. Watch." The elder sister waved her sibling over to the other end of the basement, then took up a stance with her hands at her waist, cupped with the wrists together. Nabiki watched with amazement as a ball of golden-white ki once more built between her hands, until she pushed them towards the pile of steel and concrete. The ball of light shot across the basement, crossing the twenty-five metres in a fraction of a second, to impact against the steel plates with a deafening crack that echoed around the large room. The plates rang like an enormous bell for several seconds.

"Um. Ow." Nabiki stuck a finger in her ear, which was ringing. She saw the plate now had another shallow crater with melted edges. "That's kind of scary," she said, making her sister appear pleased. Ranma was grinning.

"Like I said, she's getting pretty good at ki manipulation. That was a really small one, we have to be careful down here, or the place might collapse." He held out one hand and a thin beam of blue-white light flickered between his palm and the plates, making a weird crackling whoosh sort of sound. Once more the plates rang. This time there was a pencil-diameter hole in the top plate. Kasumi looked at him with her eyebrows raised, then performed the same trick, her beam the same golden white as the ki ball had been. It was noticeably weaker than the one Ranma had produced, but she squealed with joy and clapped her hands.

"That's the first time I've made that work properly!" She was very pleased indeed. Nabiki smiled, while inside she was thinking that her sister was becoming a very dangerous person. Ranma hugged his wife with a broad smile.

"Well done, Kas. Remember what you did, and try again." It took her three more attempts to duplicate the feat, but she grinned happily when she did. Then she did it twice more, to prove it wasn't an accident. Her sister watched with amusement as she hopped around, more excited than she'd ever seen the older woman.

"That was what you did to stop Akane's mallet, isn't it?" she asked. He nodded.

"Yes. It was the only thing I could think of at the time, and I really wasn't sure it would work. It seemed possible when I was thinking about it, but the circumstances weren't ideal to try a new technique for the first time. I didn't have any choice though. If it hadn't worked..." The dark haired man looked momentarily upset. Kasumi put her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't think about it. It worked, you saved me, and came up with a whole new technique at the same time." Glancing at her he smiled slightly. Turning to Nabiki he waved at the holes in the steel plates. "That technique is much more difficult than the ki spheres, but a lot more powerful. If I wound the power up I could easily punch a hole big enough to fit a basketball into all the way through all of that stuff and the wall behind it. Not a good idea down here. I don't want to go blowing holes in the foundations of my own house." She agreed that it seemed like a bad idea.

"I had a look at the damage you caused when you saved Kasumi. It was pretty impressive. If anyone had been in the way... Hell, that ki beam went through thirty centimetres of granite without stopping, and part of the roof tiles as well. I wonder how far it went?" He looked interested.

"I don't really know what the maximum range is. A couple of years ago I did try zapping something a few kilometres away and managed it, but haven't tried anything like that again. I was more concerned with limiting the range so I wouldn't accidentally hurt someone." He turned towards the target plates again and once more raised his hand. The beam that formed this time only went half-way across the basement before stopping abruptly. As he concentrated it steadily shortened, until there was about a metre of blue-white light coming from his hand. Nabiki stared as he tilted it up, then slowly moved it around like he was holding a pole made of light.

"Bloody hell, you've got a light sabre!" He grinned.

"Silly movie, but yes, it gave me some ideas." Ceasing projecting the beam he walked over to the pile of steel, then made another, much shorter one, this time only about thirty centimetres long. Waving it casually past the corner of the top plate he watched as a piece the size of a dinner plate dropped to the floor with a loud clang, the cut edge glowing red. Once more, Nabiki stared in awe. The two sisters walked over to look at the damage, the younger one only then noticing that the plates showed signs of having a similar attack used on them many times before. Prodding the lump of steel on the floor with her foot, which didn't make it move a millimetre, the brunette wondered how on earth they got all this stuff down here in the first place.

Ranma gestured to the elevator. "Let's go back upstairs. I'll tell you the rest, and we can get something to eat. Late lunch or early dinner, it's around half past five now." Nabiki followed him, looking back over her shoulder to see where her sister was. She stopped dead when she noticed that Kasumi had picked up the chunk of steel, which must have weighed over thirty kilos, with one delicate hand, putting it neatly on top of the pile of concrete blocks as easily as if she was tidying up books in the living room. Her elder sister met her gaze with a small smile, brushing her hands together as she walked past. The other woman shook her head in amazement.

Upstairs, they went back into the apartment, Kasumi stopping to change out of the black silks which she was still wearing and to shower. Ranma and Nabiki went into the kitchen where he started very competently preparing a quite elaborate meal. "Kas isn't the only one who's learned a lot over the last few years," he said when he noticed Nabiki's slight expression of surprise. "She's taught me all sorts of things as well." While he cooked, Nabiki wandered around the apartment looking at it. Up until now she hadn't seen all of it. The place really was very large. There were five bedrooms in total, she found, one that was clearly Kasumi and Ranma's, the one she had woken in, and three guest rooms. One of these looked like it had probably been Ranma's room before they married, judging by the furnishings. Something she found interesting was that it wasn't by any means the largest room.

In addition to the bedrooms, there was the kitchen, the living room which also doubled as a dining room, and the practice room, all of which she had already seen. Going beyond them she found a room clearly set up as a study, which had another smaller room opening off it that seemed to be a library judging by the large number of books and scrolls on shelves neatly laid out in it. Two bathrooms, not including the small one opening off the largest bedroom, and a utility room with laundry facilities nearly completed the apartment. The last room she found by accident, it was almost hidden off the practice room. When she went in she found a large collection of martial arts weapons and equipment, which reminded her of the similar storage room at the Dojo, although if anything Ranma and Kasumi had a larger collection than Soun did. Shaking her head at the sheer size of the place she returned to the kitchen.

Kasumi had Joined Ranma at the cooking, chopping vegetables for a salad, and smiled at her sister when she came in. "What do you think of our home?" she asked. Nabiki leaned against the counter edge and looked around, then grinned.

"I think I want to move in," she replied, only half-joking. Ranma laughed, while Kasumi looked pleased.

"The meal will be ready in about forty minutes. Let me put this in the oven, and we can continue with the story, if you want," he said, finishing up his preparations and washing his hands. Covering the dish he slid it into the oven, set the time and temperature, then closed the door. Offering her another beer he led the way into the living area, Kasumi following with a bowl of snacks. Once they were all sitting again, he thought for a second. "Right, where did we get to. Ah, Happosai. OK, so aside from this place, he sorted us out financially, which barely made a dent in his resources. We'll never have to work for a living if we don't want to, though." Nabiki was astounded again.

"Once we had a good cover sorted out, one that would keep anyone from finding us for the foreseeable future, we had time to think about what we were going to do." He popped a few nuts into his mouth, chewing while Kasumi took up the story.

"Ranma wanted to finish his schooling and graduate high school, at the very least. You know he was actually doing very well in Furinkan?" Her sister nodded. "For various reasons he didn't make too much of a fuss about it, but he was in the top ten percent of students there. It's very impressive when you realise that before he came to Nerima he'd only had about two years of formal schooling, which wasn't even continuous." She smiled at her husband with pride. "The problem was we couldn't enrol him in another school under his own name, it would have made it too easy for people to find us."

"What did you do?" Ranma swallowed another nut, then answered.

"Early on, in the first week or so, I called in a favour from someone a bit unusual." He seemed slightly embarrassed. "You know this area is awash with different groups of magical girls for some weird reason?" She nodded once more. "I still haven't worked out why. Anyway, a few of them are fairly sensible people, most are idiots. Well meaning idiots, but still idiots. They're often grossly overpowered, yet have next to no tactical skills or real martial arts abilities, and show an amazing level of arrogance over anything that falls into the category they think of as '_demonic._'" He frowned a little. "I mean, you only have to look a little out of the ordinary in some parts of this ward and you get jumped by half a dozen pretty schoolgirls in some perverts idea of a cheerleader outfit ranting about foul fiends. It's like being surrounded by dozens of female versions of Kuno, only genuinely dangerous."

Nabiki looked amused at his description, while Kasumi was smiling at her husband in a tolerant fashion, obviously having heard these complaints before. "They're mainly a damn menace, in my view. Oh sure, some of the demons and other odd entities that pop up from time to time are worse, but quite a few of them are essentially harmless and just want to be left alone. Just because someone has a tail and scales is no reason to immediately start chucking magical shuriken or some such thing at them. And don't even mention the stupid names they come up with for their attacks. It's ridiculous. Half the time a competent fighter would have wiped them out before they finished the wind-up for the attack and shouting out the name. Which is _always_ stupid." He didn't look impressed.

"They usually can't even _spell_ overkill never mind know what it means. The amount of damage they cause is amazing, it makes Ryoga look like an amateur." He shook his head in disgust. "All that aside, sometimes they do deal with a real threat. One day I've got to figure out why so much of that sort of thing happens here. So anyway, a few years ago, one of the slightly less crazy groups ran into something they couldn't handle. Basically they bit off a lot more than they could chew. Kind of their own fault, actually, the threat would have gone away on it's own if they'd just stayed back. As it happened I was in the area, completely coincidentally, it was where I'd landed after one of Akane's more impressive mallet attacks." He rubbed the top of his head unconsciously, while Nabiki winced a little in sympathy. "I pulled myself out of the hole I'd made when I landed to find myself in the middle of a major magical battle. The thing they were attacking, and losing to very badly, took an interest in me."

Ranma smiled a little at the memory. "That was kind of a mistake. I was in a really shitty mood anyway, Akane had jumped me out of the blue for no good reason, and I'll admit I was spoiling for a fight. When this stupid demonic whatever it was decided to take a swing at me, especially after I'd seen how badly it had hurt those girls, it was a really good outlet for all the frustration from dealing with your sister." His smile widened in reminiscence, becoming quite predatory. "It was an amazing fight. The thing didn't have much technique but it was damn tough, tougher than Ryoga. Didn't help it much in the end. I got annoyed with it and really cut loose after about a quarter of an hour. You can still see the crater in that park." Nabiki's eyes widened as she glanced at her sister, who nodded.

"He showed me. It's about fifteen metres across."

"Good grief." She was thinking about what would have happened if he'd ever become that angry in Furinkan. Returning to his seat after having quickly gone to retrieve a glass of water, Ranma sipped it, then continued.

"I'd ended up getting soaked because of a fountain it threw me into, which made these girls think _I_ was a magical girl as well. That took a while to sort out. They were very grateful that I'd helped them, saved them is more accurate, and I ended up helping them a few more times over the next month, filling in for one of them that was badly injured until she healed up." He grimaced a little, while Nabiki began to smirk. She could see where this was going. "Um, they insisted I wear their uniform, when I was helping out. In the end I gave in, they were very persuasive." He glared at the middle sister who was snickering. "It's not funny. That damn uniform was nearly obscene. It made me look more naked than being naked!"

She started to laugh, Kasumi also giggling. "Thanks a lot. The important thing is that they had these magical artefacts that were a sort of a disguise. They made people who saw them unable to remember much about what they looked like. Not invisibility, more like a confusion spell. Without either using one yourself, or being present when they were activated, when the things were in use you'd never be able to describe or recognise the person using them later. They even screw up cameras. Very useful if you're going to run around looking like a pornographic version of a schoolgirl." Nabiki was limp with hilarity, picturing the female Ranma in one of the skimpier magical girl uniforms, looking really, _really_ annoyed. Much like he looked at the moment in fact. He waited impatiently until she stopped giggling. "Finished?" She nodded weakly.

"I got in touch with them and explained, so they gave me a couple of spares. We used them for a year or so every time we went out, which made it nearly impossible for anyone to trace us." Taking another drink, he paused for breath. Kasumi picked up the tale once more.

"We were able to enrol him in a local school under a different name. It was as a her in fact. We discussed it for quite a while, but it seemed safer even though he wasn't happy about it at the time. The chances of getting splashed with hot water accidentally are much lower than with cold water. Happosai helped us, finding some way to get the school to accept Ranma's transcripts under that name, and keep any reference to who we really were out of the records. I don't know how he did it, it was probably naughty though." She smiled happily. "It worked. With the magical devices we could come and go as we pleased and no-one ever worked out that she wasn't who she said she was. She graduated with very high marks."

Ranma was grinning a little. "Kas took ages persuading me to go to school while female, but I've found over the years I can never really say no to her. Especially when she's right. It was really embarrassing at first but I got used to it much faster than I expected. I kept my head down, stayed out of any excitement, just tried to stay in the background and finish school. It was mostly uneventful." Rising once more he went into the kitchen to check on the progress of the food. "Another twenty minutes or so," he commented as he returned. "Eventually, I worked out the first version of the illusion spell, which made some of this easier. We could set up identities that people _could_ remember, but not associate with who we really were. Another contact has ways of getting very convincing IDs for us, which let us create a number of personae for public use. The problem is that he couldn't make them good enough to be completely sure that a passport, for example, would work all over the world. That's one reason we stayed in Japan."

Drinking some more water, he smiled. "There are other reasons as well. We wanted to keep an eye on you lot, just in case. Plus, until I was legally an adult at twenty, we couldn't do a number of things under our real names that we wanted to do."

Nabiki was going over some of what he'd just told her in her head, there was something... Ah. "OK. Either that means that you can do magic as well," she said, glancing at her sister, "or _you_ can use that spell on other people." She looked back to Ranma, who grinned.

"I can, as it happens. It takes more power, but not enough to make much of a difference most of the time. But with Kas I don't need to." A flicker of motion caught the corner of Nabiki's vision and she turned her head to find herself, once more, looking at a perfect duplicate.


	8. Chapter 8

"AGH!" she yelped in surprise. The duplicate Nabiki raised an eyebrow in an unnervingly accurate imitation of the original. Looking wildly back to Ranma she yelped once more when she found herself looking at her own face yet again, wearing exactly the same expression as the first one. "_Stop that!_" she shouted in irritation. "It's _incredibly_ creepy!"

Both Nabiki clones said, in perfect unison and in her own voice, "I know. But it's funny." She glared at them as they collapsed in laughter, shimmering back into their true forms in the process. Ranma was female once again which made her blink for a moment, then sigh. "You two are extremely annoying and very weird." This only made them laugh harder. She leaned back into the sofa and waited for the pair of lunatics to calm down, which took a little while.

"God, you should have seen the look on your face, Nabiki," Ranma chortled. "I wish I'd had a camera." She snorted with a complete lack of amusement, making the red-head grin.

"Oh, grow up, Saotome," she snarled. Kasumi put her hand on her sister's shoulder.

"Don't get too annoyed, sister. We didn't mean to irritate you, but you have to admit it was very amusing. I couldn't resist." She seemed apologetic enough, but the corners of her mouth were twitching suspiciously. Nabiki looked at her sister through narrowed eyes for a moment, then slumped, crossing her arms defensively.

"OK, yes, I can see you'd think that. It's just kind of scary, you understand? I haven't seen either of you for over three years, then to find out how much you've changed... it's freaking me out a little. The magic and the martial arts just add to that." Kasumi looked sympathetic, quickly hugging her sister for a moment.

"I do understand. I'm so very happy to see you after all this time. Yes, I have changed, but I had to. I think I'm probably more like I should have been, in a sense, closer to what I'd have been if I hadn't had to take over after mother died. As I said before, I don't resent what happened, it taught me so many things I could never have learned otherwise, but it was time to move on. I hope you can understand that." Nabiki was watching her with a neutral expression but slowly nodded.

"I think so. I agree, as well. But it's still strange. Whatever I was expecting to find here, it wasn't...," she looked around, waving one hand vaguely at the apartment, "all this." Glancing at Ranma, who was watching her soberly now, she suddenly smiled. "But I'm very glad you two seem to be doing so well. Don't worry, I'll get used to it. Eventually." The red-headed young woman smiled back, then looked up as a beeping sound came from the kitchen.

"Aha. Dinner is ready. Kas, can you help me set the table?" Her wife patted her sister comfortingly on the knee then stood and followed the other woman into the kitchen. Within a few minutes they had the table laid out, the food on it, and all three of them were seated around it. "I hope you enjoy it," Ranma said, picking up her chopsticks. The other two began eating, Nabiki's eyes widening after the first couple of mouthfuls.

"This is really good, Ranma. You've learned a lot about cooking." The other woman smiled in gratitude.

"Thanks. Kasumi is much better than I'll ever be, but she taught me a lot." There was silence for a while as they ate, then Nabiki thought of something.

"Hey. If that illusion spell can do clothes and hair and whatnot, why bother braiding yours like that? Or for that matter, wear the clothes you were wearing when we met? Which I'm still annoyed about, by the way." Ranma grinned at this.

"Good. Consider it payback for all the times you charged me for stupid things." Nabiki grinned back.

"Speaking of that, you still owe me forty-three thousand, five hundred and twenty yen, you know." Kasumi sighed a little, while her female husband laughed.

"I'll write you a cheque." She ate some more food, then answered the original question while Nabiki was snickering. "Yes, the spell can do clothes and hair, pretty much anything you'd want. But the more complex the illusion the more energy it takes. Having my hair like this and dressing in the clothes I want the illusory persona to have means I only need to change myself. It lets me keep the illusion running for a long time without as much drain on my power level, which can be very useful." The brunette nodded thoughtfully.

"So, you use that form a lot, then?" It was Ranma's time to nod.

"Yes, that one is an established persona I have ID papers for." She shimmered and became the girl from earlier. Nabiki watched, fascinated, the change was perfect. Nothing at all remained to indicate that the girl sitting there was the Ranma she knew. Even the body language changed. "Hello. I'm Maiko Nakahara. Pleased to meet you." She held out a hand and after a momentary pause Nabiki shook it with a small smile. The voice was slightly deeper than Ranma's own female voice, with more feminine intonations. Totally convincing and giving nothing away. After a few seconds the girl developed the Ranma grin, the body language reverting to something she was very familiar with. She stared, impressed.

"That's absolutely amazing. How did you get so good at acting?" Ranma, in the guise of Maiko, grinned.

"Again, lots and lots of practice. It was more difficult at first, but I seem to have something of a gift for this sort of thing. Kas is pretty good at it as well. We both have a couple of standard identities we use outside the house. This is the one I go to university as." Nabiki stared again.

"You're going to university?" 'Maiko' smiled.

"Of course. Why, did you think I made up all that stuff about oxygen depletion in muscles?" Nabiki shrugged.

"I didn't think much about it, after I found out who you actually were. But now you mention it..."

"It's true. I really am taking a course in sports medicine and biomechanics. I'm in my second year there. It's going pretty well, I should have a degree in it in two years." The middle Tendo sister shook her head, impressed and surprised.

"Won't it be a bit difficult, having 'Maiko' be the one with the degree?" The brunette girl smiled a little.

"There are ways to deal with that when the time comes. It won't be a problem." Intrigued, Nabiki started to ask for details until another thought struck her.

Turning to Kasumi, who had been eating silently and listening with a small smile on her face the whole time, she asked curiously, "Are you at the university as well?" Kasumi's smile widened, she shimmered in the same way Ranma had done, and there was a completely different girl sitting there. She was still quite tall but a little shorter than Kasumi's true form, with short blonde hair in a sort of a pageboy cut. Her eyes were hazel, her face very pretty but showing no relationship to her normal features at all, looking like a Northern European/Japanese ethnic mix. Nabiki would never have had the slightest clue that this was her sister if she'd passed her in the street.

"Hi. I'm Rika Nygaard." Her voice was quite deep for a woman, with a trace of a foreign accent of some sort. Nabiki stared at her transfigured sister for several seconds, appearing slightly stunned. 'Rika' went on, her face quite serious unlike Kasumi's normal expression, "I'm in the second year of a medical degree. I have another three or four years to go to become a doctor. Oh yes, in case you're wondering, my father is Danish. He met my mother when she was on a trip to Europe, followed her back to Japan, and has lived here ever since." Her sister was still staring at her. With a shimmer she resumed her normal appearance, looking pleased.

"Was that convincing?" she asked curiously. Nabiki nodded, speechless.

"Oh, yes. Very." After a few more seconds of staring she shook herself a little. "Bloody hell, Kasumi! That was even weirder than her," she pointed at Ranma, who was eating quietly still in her Maiko guise, "How did you get so good at that?" Kasumi seemed amused at her sister's reaction.

"Like Ranma said, a lot of practice. We both spent entire days, once or twice a couple of weeks, in those forms, quizzing each other on our persona until it became second nature. The illusion spell sorts out the voice, but the mannerisms and so on take lots of repetition until you can do it without thinking. I can't do male forms at all convincingly, yet. Ranma is a lot better at being female than I am at being male, for obvious reasons." Nabiki stared for a moment more, then resumed eating before her food got cold, shooting both her sister and current sister in law curious yet respectful glances.

Ranma went back to her true appearance after a few minutes. "We each have a couple of properly documented alternate personae we practised with until they were second nature, and several more that we use less often. Basically, it's one for use at the university, and one for everywhere else, which we try to keep separate so that people won't link them to each other. The others are for specific purposes. You've seen a few of mine earlier." Nabiki grinned.

"Was that demoness with the scales a special purpose one? Or just something you came up with to scare me?" Ranma looked very amused.

"Oh, Zythra'a is a special purpose one, definitely." Suddenly the blue scaled demoness was sitting in the red-head's place, delicately putting some chicken in her mouth with the chopsticks. Nabiki leaned away for a moment, startled, then inspected the apparition more closely now that she wasn't scared of it. That's not to say that those teeth didn't make an impression.

"What possible purpose could looking like that serve?" she asked curiously. The demoness grinned in a worrying way, making her blink despite herself.

"Dealing with a very specific group of magical girls," she said in a throaty voice with a weird accent that Nabiki couldn't place at all. "They keep turning up and causing trouble, so a year or so ago I decided that I'd had enough. I came up with this, it's based on someone I know." This made Nabiki stare in disbelief.

"You _know_ a demoness?" The disguised Ranma nodded with a toothy grin.

"Several, actually. Decent people, by and large. As are quite a few of the male demons I've met. Oh, they have some pretty odd ideas of normal behaviour by our standards, but overall they're easy enough to deal with. Assuming you don't simply attack them on sight, like those idiotic girls tend to do." The demoness changed back into the red-head, making Nabiki relax very slightly. Even when she knew who it was under the illusion, it was so convincing it was a bit worrying. "Zythra'a has a tendency of popping up when those girls are beating up something that doesn't deserve it and returning the favour, normally in as embarrassing a way as possible. They absolutely hate her, but they're also terrified of her. It's been quite effective at keeping them out of the area around the university so far, without me having to resort to more serious measures."

"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Nabiki queried. "They could end up getting some allies together and coming after you. Or Zythra'a, at any rate." Ranma shrugged.

"It's not an ideal method, I'll admit, but so far it seems to be working. There's quite a bit of rivalry between the different groups of magical twits and I've been careful to have Zythra'a only go after that one bunch. The others seem to think it's hysterical. Once, one of the other groups was even watching and taking bets on the outcome of a fight. That _really_ didn't help relations between them, especially when they accepted a bet from me." She grinned widely, and Nabiki could only laugh at the red-head's style. "I won." Kasumi sighed a little, but with a patient look.

"One of the reports I read seemed to suggest that a demon-hunter has had to be carried out of here on a stretcher. And that the demon that the hunter was hunting seemed extremely amused." Ranma chuckled.

"Oh, that one. Yes, that was kind of funny. This girl was over the top even by the standards of that type, she chased a demon into the area I'd made clear was off limits, started causing a lot of damage, nearly killed two bystanders with some sort of explosive attack, then went after me when I told her to push off. She had no idea of how to minimise collateral damage at all, I don't think she cared how many people got hurt as long as she got her demon. A bit like Ryoga on a bad day, but even more pig-headed. The demon wasn't much of a problem, really, he was here just looking around when she jumped him. Young one, he should have known better. Anyway, in the end I was forced to give her a pretty good pounding to get her to stop, she just wouldn't back down. I'd admire that normally, but she was completely out of control and likely to kill someone. The demon found it all highly amusing, I don't think he appreciated being attacked like that. He was rolling on the ground laughing his tail off when I broke her arm. Weird sense of humour. I've got a standing invitation to visit him if I'm ever around where he comes from." She looked amused.

Nabiki was listening with a mild sense of unreality. If it hadn't been for the things she knew damn well the martial artist had experienced and done she wouldn't have believed a word of it, but even so it was a lot to accept. "What about the other reports of the demons or whatever coming in to this area and not going back out?" Ranma seemed saddened.

"Oh, they're true as well. While quite a few of the so-called demons are, while not harmless, basically just tourists, there are certainly things that are extremely nasty." She paused, trying to think of a way to explain it. "These creatures come from different worlds, normally through some sort of portal from there to here. They don't all come from the same place. A couple of the places they _do_ come from are a pretty close match to what you'd think of as hell, or **a** hell at any rate. Those are the dangerous ones. Most of them are pretty dim, one or two are anything but. They're the _really_ dangerous ones. I'd prefer to send them back, I don't like killing, but sometimes there's no alternative. The magical girls do a reasonable job in many cases of dealing with these things, and if they stuck to the dangerous ones things would be a lot better. But they don't, and most of them also don't think much about blowing up an entire building to get one demon. No finesse."

She looked very irritated. "I don't want to live somewhere where at any moment some damn creature or even worse creature-hunter might decide to blow the front off a building I'm in. Especially this one. So I've been taking steps to make sure that they know damn well to stay away. The smarter ones got the hint pretty quickly, but not all of them are smart, on either side." Finishing her food she put her chopsticks in the bowl, then sighed a little. "It's a nuisance. I find that turning up as soon as they do, blowing up whatever they're chasing if it won't see reason, then shouting at them normally does the trick, but sometimes I have to go further. I guess it keeps me in shape at least." She glanced at her wife, who smiled back. "And it's been good practise for Kas." Her sister looked at the older woman in shock.

"You've fought demonic things?" Kasumi nodded happily.

"And a couple of magical girls. They weren't very good." Nabiki stared once more. This was getting very weird indeed.


	9. Chapter 9

"I'm having a lot of problems with all this", the middle Tendo sister moaned, dropping her chopsticks and putting her head in her hands. Kasumi and Ranma glanced at each other, the martial artist turning male after a few seconds, then leaning over and putting his hand on her back.

"We're sorry, Nabiki. I know it's all different now. A lot of things have changed over the last three years, for you as well as us. But we're basically the same people. Your sister is still your sister, she just has some new skills and interests as well." The brunette rolled her head to the side so she could see him out of one eye, then sighed heavily.

"I know, I know." She raised her head and looked at him, then at her sister, who appeared slightly worried. "But still, it's a lot to take in. Every time I think I've come to grips with it you drop something else on me." She pointed at Kasumi. "You, my older sister, the ultimate home maker, the woman who abhors violence, fight both demons _and_ magical girls with your superhuman martial arts skills?" She giggled a little hysterically while Kasumi smiled uncertainly. "It's completely insane. I kind of expect insanity from _him_," she jerked a thumb at Ranma without looking at him, "But _you_ were always the sensible one." Ranma glanced at his wife and shrugged a little, he couldn't deny the truth of her words. There was silence for a while, then Nabiki picked up her chopsticks and resumed eating with a far-off expression. Ranma and Kasumi exchanged glances again and wordlessly agreed to let her think things through.

The rest of the meal passed quietly. When they finished, Ranma cleared the table while Kasumi sat and watched her sister, who was staring at the table wearing a puzzled expression. After some minutes she looked up at her older sister and smiled a little. "I'll be OK, sis. It's just a lot to take in."

"I know. I'm sorry you're having a hard time with it." Standing, she motioned to her sister to follow her, then led the way through the practice room up to the roof garden. They stood beside each other at the edge looking out over Tokyo in the evening twilight, admiring the view. "Please don't blame Ranma for any of this," the older woman said after a while. "He saved me from myself, as much as I saved him from himself. I love him very much, but I love you very much as well and don't want you to be upset. It's been very hard all this time, knowing how close you were but being unable to talk to you. You have no idea how many times I wanted to just go back to Nerima to see you all." She smiled sadly. "When we got the illusion spell working we did pop back a couple of times, just to see the place, but I couldn't risk contacting anyone. I watched you and Akane from a distance though." She put her arm around the shorter woman's shoulders and pulled her close.

"I missed you so much. It's wonderful that you finally came." Nabiki leaned against her sister, listening to her words carefully. It helped.

"It wasn't through lack of effort that I took so long, you know." Kasumi laughed.

"I do know. There were good reasons for us both to vanish, ones you understand. That didn't make it any easier." She smiled a little deviously. "I was slightly disappointed that it took you so long to track us down." Nabiki looked annoyed.

"I'm sorry I didn't live up to your expectations. It's been pretty hard the last three years. Money is always tight, Akane has been an absolute nightmare a lot of the time, and all the insanity at home didn't stop when you guys left. If anything it got worse." Pulling away from Kasumi she put her hands on the railing around the roof and stared out across the city silently, while her sister watched. After a few seconds she sighed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. It's getting better now, but Akane is still a nightmare. At least I'm at university myself most of the time, so I don't have to put up with her. It worries me, though, when I think what will happen if she ever finds out about Ranma. Or if Ryoga is stupid enough to come back, either." Turning she leaned her rear on the wall and looked at her sister.

"She's getting really unstable, Kasumi. It scares me. She was bad enough when Ranma was there, hitting him all the time for stupid reasons, but now... Oh, she's much quieter about him, unless you manage to trigger a rant, but I know she's still obsessed. More obsessed, even. She hasn't grown up at all." The brunette looked upset. "I lost two sisters that night. I finally got one back, but the other one is still slipping away." Shaking her head she turned to look out over the city again. "Even when she was younger she alternated between the nice Akane, the one I remember growing up, and the violent paranoid one that hit Ranma. Fair enough, sometimes he provoked it, but most of the time he didn't, the poor bastard. The violent Akane is pretty much all that's left now." Kasumi stepped closer and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I didn't realise it was that bad. The reports we have are quite detailed, but don't go into much about Akane, they mainly concentrated on you." Nabiki glanced at her with a frown.

"You make it sound like you have someone watching me all the time." Kasumi was silent but had a slightly guilty expression. Nabiki stared. "Fuck me. You DO?"

"Not _all_ the time. Just... quite a lot of it." Nabiki shook her head in disbelief.

"Who? And why?" Her sister looked at the ground, then met her eyes.

"I don't think I should tell you who, not at the moment. But the reason is because you were the biggest threat to us. If anyone could track us down it would be you." She laughed briefly. "As shown by the fact we're having this conversation." Nabiki couldn't help but smile a little. "Ranma thought we needed to know in advance what you were doing, in case we had to change our plans in a hurry. So we arranged to have you monitored, at least some of the time. I'm sorry, I know it's an invasion of privacy, and under normal circumstances I'd never have allowed it. But we didn't have much choice."

Her sister thought it over then sighed. It was exactly what she would have done, and in fact had been trying to do since they'd left. She could hardly object to it too much. Although she was desperately curious to know who it was that was spying on her and how. "I guess I forgive you, sis." Kasumi smiled and hugged her. Curious, she asked, "Are you watching the others as well?" The taller woman nodded with an amused look.

"Yes. Not all by the same method. Cologne is extremely difficult to sneak up on, but Happosai found a way to keep an eye on her from a distance. Ironically, blocking a lot of her attempts to do the same thing to us in the process. The Kunos are easy, and most of the rest either weren't much of a threat, or could be watched by keeping an eye on the Dojo." Nabiki looked impressed.

"It sounds like you're in the middle of quite the spy ring," she chuckled. Kasumi seemed both pleased and embarrassed at the praise.

"It's mostly Ranma and Happosai who did the work. I did come up with a few contacts, though." Her sister looked at her curiously. "Do you remember Mrs Tachibana?" The name didn't register beyond a very faint familiarity. "Ranma calls her the ladle lady." This _did_ register, making Nabiki snort with surprised laughter.

"Her? The ancient little woman who waters the road even when it's raining? She's one of your spies?" Unable to stop herself she collapsed in giggles. "That's brilliant. No one would ever suspect anything." Kasumi was looking very pleased with herself.

"She's a lovely woman. I stopped and talked to her almost every day on the way to the market. She was really happy to help us, she thought the whole thing was enormously funny."

When she'd collected herself, Nabiki asked her sister curiously, "So you recruited old women to spy on us all?" Kasumi nodded.

"Some of them. And shopkeepers, delivery people, various other people we knew. Ones we knew you'd never have any reason to suspect." The middle sister stared with amazement. She'd had no idea her older sister was so sneaky. It was very impressive, even if it had worked against her. The silence this time was much less emotional, as they watched the sky slowly darken.

Kasumi eventually said, "We can help out financially if you like." Nabiki glanced at her. "We have more money than we need, and would happily let you have some. You could get the Dojo fixed properly and not have to worry about the bills." She fell silent again, not pushing, just allowing her sister to think it through.

After a minute or so, Nabiki replied thoughtfully, "My first instinct is to say thanks very much. But the more I think about it the more it worries me for some reason." Her sister looked at her curiously. "Yes, money is tight at the moment, but the situation is slowly improving. Akane has a job, one that she seems to be able to hold on to, and the two fathers are actually working for the first time in years. I'm worried that if I turned up with a decent sum they might all decide that they didn't need to try as hard and it would all fall apart." The older woman nodded slowly.

"I think I understand. I'm not sure it's correct but you'd know that better than I would, you're closer to them right now." She was silent for a little while. "Still, perhaps you could take some of our money anyway, for emergencies? You don't _have_ to spend it, but knowing it's there would take a lot off your mind. And mine." Nabiki thought it over then slowly agreed.

"All right. Thank you." Hugging her again, her sister smiled.

"That's what family is for." The two of them walked around the roof garden, which was now being lit by small lamps hidden in the undergrowth, coming on automatically as the evening progressed. "What can we do about Akane?" the older woman asked as they stopped near the middle of the garden. Her sister sighed.

"I really don't know. The only thing I can think of at the moment is to keep her away from Ranma, and Ryoga. Other than that... Perhaps she'll grow out of it. Perhaps now that Father and Genma are teaching her they can redirect some of that rage into something useful." Shrugging helplessly, she sat on a bench under a large fern. Kasumi sat next to her and held her hand. "It gives me nightmares. She's nowhere near as good as you at the Art, and lacks any form of discipline, but she's horrifically strong and very fast. You add uncontrollable rage to that and the results could be appalling. What terrifies me is that one day she'll lose it towards someone who isn't Ranma or Ryoga, which will end up with corpses for sure." She shuddered.

"We won't let that happen," the older woman assured her, with a worried expression of her own.

"How can you stop it? OK, sure, if you get warning you and Ranma could get there and stop her, but what if she just snaps in the middle of the street? By the time anyone who could stop her gets there she could wipe out the entire area. She's nothing like as dangerous as Ranma is, or even you are now, but even so she's a lot more than the cops could handle." Neither one of them liked that thought but neither could work out a solution. Eventually Nabiki said, "I guess there isn't anything much we can decide about it right now. With any luck it won't happen, anyway."

Turning to look at her sister, she deliberately changed the subject from the depressing turn it had taken. "By the way, congratulations. I kind of got distracted earlier, but you're going to be a doctor! That's fantastic." Kasumi smiled brilliantly.

"I know! It's something I wanted to do since I was a little girl. At one point I thought perhaps being a nurse would be a good idea, but after I left Nerima, and talked to Ranma and Happosai, I decided why stop there? Whether I end up a practising GP or not I haven't decided yet, but I'm having so much fun at the moment you wouldn't believe it. I've missed learning like this all these years." Grinning at her sister's enthusiasm, Nabiki stood up.

"Come on, let's go back downstairs. You guys can tell me the rest of the story, then I want some alone time with my sister. I want you to tell me everything you've been doing at university." Kasumi smiled back, gracefully rising to her feet. When the two women re-entered the living room where Ranma was reading a book, he looked at them with a raised eyebrow. Both seemed much happier than when they'd left, Nabiki in particular.

"You look better, Nabiki. I'm sorry about overwhelming you earlier."

"Don't worry about it, Ranma. It was a lot to take in, that's all." She stared hard at him. "But I am going to have to talk to you about your spy network." He glanced at his wife who smiled and raised a hand to her mouth.

"Oh, my. How did she find out about that?" After a moment, all three of them started laughing.

When they wound down, Ranma grinned at the brunette woman. "Sorry about all the spying, but you understand the reasons I'm sure." She nodded, still giggling a little. "So, do you want to hear the rest? If it's not too much to take in."

"I can handle it. Hit me." She grinned back at him.

"OK." The two woman sat on the sofa again, settling in comfortably. "So, once I graduated high school, not around here, we spent nearly a year training Kas in the Art, ki practice, that sort of thing, while also getting all our contacts, and yours," he grinned and she looked annoyed, "sorted out so we knew what was going on back in Furinkan. Once we were sure we weren't going to be discovered and have to run for it again, we talked it over and decided that university for the both of us was what we wanted to do. Happosai was very supportive about that, he thinks education is much more important than Pop does. He suggested this place, he's got some sort of history with it. I'm not sure what. Since this building was available and the courses we wanted were taught here, that's where we ended up." He smiled. "Happosai had already given us the building long before we'd decided on the university. He's pretty sharp, I think he had a good idea what was going to happen."

"Around then I got the first version of the illusion spell working, so we also set up various identities using it and got the paperwork for them in order. I still didn't have control of the curse then, so we decided to continue with me going to university as a woman. The illusion spell could have covered for me if I'd changed but it was one more thing that might go wrong. Keeping it simple was the idea. Changing what I look like a little, like from one woman into a roughly similar sized one, is easier than for instance suddenly having to cover up being female when I'd been male up until then. In the early days that could have gone wrong very easily. Now I'm much better at it, but just carrying on as we have been is simplest." He shrugged a little. "I'm used to it, it doesn't bother me at all now. It's just part of who I am."

A thought struck him, and he glanced at the two women. "Does anyone want some ice cream?" Nabiki looked a little surprised at the randomness of the question, while Kasumi giggled.

"OK," the brunette said after a moment. He grinned and went into the kitchen, coming back after a few minutes with three bowls of strawberry ice cream and some spoons. Handing it out he sat and shovelled a considerable amount into his face, making both women look mildly disgusted. "Well, that hasn't changed, at any rate," Nabiki commented, starting in on hers in a much more appropriate manner. Kasumi laughed, also trying a spoonful.

"You have no idea. The amount of ice cream we get through... It's a good thing his metabolism is insanely fast or he'd weigh about two hundred kilos by now." Ranma stuck out a strawberry-flavoured tongue at her, making her giggle again.

Finishing his bowl he put it on the coffee table, then resumed talking. "After that, we pretty much settled into a routine. Practice for a couple of hours in the mornings, go to university, more practice at lunch, then for a couple of hours when we get home. Keep an eye on Nerima, beat up the occasional demon or magical girl, you know. More or less the usual." He snickered. Nabiki gave him a long look before shaking her head.

"Very weird. Both of you." She finished her treat and put her bowl on top of his. "And that's it?" He nodded.

"Pretty much. The last year or so has been surprisingly quiet. There's been the odd need to go outside Minato, for various reasons, but mostly we've just been learning things and waiting to see what happened with everyone in Nerima. A few months ago Kasumi decided that she wanted something more permanent with our relationship, we discussed it for a while, then more or less got engaged. We went on a few dates, something more formal than what we'd been doing up until then. One day, she basically sat on me until I agreed to marry her." He grinned, while Nabiki glanced at her sister with raised eyebrows. Kasumi was smiling happily, obviously remembering something. "We moved into the same bedroom, three months later we got married."

"I wish you could have been there, sister. It wasn't very romantic, we had to keep it quiet. That part I regret. It was just the two of us, Happosai, and the legal clerk. One day, perhaps we can do it over again with family." The elder sister smiled gently, thinking about the marriage. Her smile widened fractionally. "Since then it's been... very nice." Nabiki looked at her carefully, then at Ranma, who was wearing a slightly evil smile as he watched his wife, who seemed to be matching his expression quite closely. After a moment Nabiki coughed.

"Right. Well, again, congratulations." She was feeling a little uncomfortable. Kasumi and Ranma both jumped, looking guiltily at the middle sister, who snickered. "Are you considering children?" She was very curious about that. The other two exchanged glances, but it was Kasumi who answered.

"We have talked about it a few times. Neither one of us thinks that it's a good idea right now. But later on, well, we're not against the idea at all." Her sister nodded thoughtfully then got an odd look.

"So," she said slyly, "which one of you would have the kid?" Ranma stared wide-eyed at her, then at his wife, who looked first surprised then contemplative. Nabiki grinned.

"We haven't decided," Kasumi said, glancing at her husband mischievously. "Maybe one each?" Ranma seemed uncomfortable, but Nabiki was interested to note he didn't refute the suggestion. It gave her something to think about.

"Anyway," he said, his voice squeaking a little on the word and making both sisters smile, "that's basically it. We ran away, hid, learned magic, got money, found somewhere to live, went to school, got married, and here we are." He waved his hands at the room with a grin. Nabiki looked at him for a long moment.

"I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to it than that."

"Oh, sure. But it would take days to go over it. We've already been talking for hours. I can tell you more another time if you want. Quite a lot of the story is very boring though."

After another pause, Nabiki sighed a little, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a couple of sheets of paper. Unfolding them she put them on the table face down. "OK. Thanks for letting me know everything. There's one thing you haven't mentioned yet, though, that I really need to know." Pushing the papers across the table to him, she pulled her hand back. He watched her face for a moment, then picked them up, turned them over, and went still. Only his eyes moved as he read the top sheet, before putting them back on the table. He glanced at her with a neutral expression. "Was that you?" After a long moment during which he and Kasumi exchanged looks, he nodded.

"Yes."

"All of them?"

"No. Only the first eight." He locked eyes with his wife, and Nabiki slowly turned to look at her sister.

"You?" She couldn't believe it.

"He was a monster. He'd killed at least nine women, and was in the process of killing another one when we found him. She was only eleven!" Kasumi started crying and Ranma got up to sit beside her. Nabiki watch in silence, trying to understand how her gentle older sister could have done _that_ to someone, even if he was a monster. Then she remembered the reports she'd read about the other victims of the person in question and found it quite easy to understand.

"Good for you, sis," she said quietly, leaning over and holding her tightly. On the other side Ranma was doing the same thing.

"I found him before Ranma did, we knew he was somewhere in the area but not exactly where. I was so angry when I saw what he was doing to that poor girl. It was strange, at first I was almost shaking with anger, then I went cold. Almost emotionless, like Ranma's soul of ice technique, but I wasn't using it. When I pulled him off the girl and threw him across the park into a tree his arm broke. I remember walking over and looking at him lying there with his pants around his ankles, his hands covered in blood..." She shivered at the memory. "There was a lot more blood when I stopped hitting him." Turning her head she buried her face in Ranma's chest. Nabiki looked over her shaking shoulders at his expression, while rubbing her sister's back. He looked upset, but weirdly proud as well.

"That bastard was the worst of the lot," he said quietly. "He'd raped, killed, and dismembered nine children over three years and the police had absolutely no leads. If Kas hadn't got him I would have, and I'm really not sure he'd have survived." The martial artist was silent for a while, hugging his wife. "I absolutely _hate_ rapists, more than I can say. They're one of the most extreme examples of the powerful hurting the weak I can imagine, going against everything I believe, that I've trained for. Even then I find it difficult to think I could kill another human, but I came very close with a couple of those fuckers. None closer than this revolting excuse for a person." A bitter laugh escaped him. "You want to know the funny thing? The demoness I based Zythra'a on would have slaughtered him on the spot as someone who didn't deserve to live. What does that tell you about what he was like?"

The quiet in the room was only broken by the sound of Kasumi crying for some time.

Eventually she sat up, wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said in a small voice. Ranma tenderly wiped a tear off her cheek.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, my love. Either for what you did, or for being upset about it. It needed to be done, you were the person in that place at that time. We had the ability to stop a horrible crime and if we hadn't we'd have been as guilty as the one committing it. You saved at least one life, and who knows how many more that he might have gone on to take."

Nabiki watched them, realising once more how much they cared for each other. She was very pleased that her sister had someone like that in her life, even under the circumstances. "I suspect the law might have a different interpretation, despite how much I agree with you myself." Ranma looked at her with a slight smile.

"Possibly. Possibly not. All nine of the people we've... dealt with... have been sexual predators of the worst possible type. None of them were people the police could catch." Watching her for a moment, he added, "Did you figure out that we were pointed at them? I suspect by the police themselves?" She stared at him for a long moment, some things that she'd noticed suddenly coming together in her head.

"Bloody hell. So that's what happened." While he watched she thought hard, then slowly asked, "Let me guess. Newspaper articles covering crimes on a national scale, that normally wouldn't get reported outside a smaller area?" The dark haired man nodded.

"More or less. Not the last one, he was enough of a threat that the story had been covered nationally anyway, but not very much. No one had any real details, the guy was very careful. But the rest, yes. The first one was in Nerima, I know you found out about that. Thanks to you I even know who came up with the idea. I always kind of liked that guy. For a cop he has a very straight-forward attitude to life. I can't prove it, but I have a pretty good idea that he told a few people scattered around the country, probably friends of his, which made some of them try a similar thing when they got stuck."

The middle sister was listening with interest. It seemed plausible and fitted the facts. "You realise that if you're right they're using you as their own unofficial wet-work specialist, someone they can genuinely say they have no knowledge of if you get found out?" He smiled a little.

"Of course. In a way I don't even mind. I would if it wasn't for the fact that the people they're pointing me at really are the worst scum around. I don't truly enjoy hurting someone, even someone like that, so much, but if I don't people will die. Like I said to Kas, if I have the ability to stop a horrific crime and don't, in my mind that make me nearly as guilty as the person committing it."

"I'm going to have to look into this some more. It's kind of disturbing in a way." Ranma shrugged.

"I agree. But I'm not going to stand by and let anyone get raped under any circumstances."

Nabiki nodded, but cautioned, "Be careful. I doubt very much that any of the police from Nerima have any intention at all of ever trying to arrest you, but you never know if someone from a different city might not have a go."

"I'm not planning on making it a hobby. But thanks for the thought." He grinned at her, and even Kasumi looked happier. Nabiki retrieved her papers and looked at them for a moment, the picture of the injuries the last rapist had suffered making her shiver. The thought that her elder sister had done that... For a few seconds she wondered if Akane really was the dangerous one in the family. '_Yes, she is_,' she thought to herself after a second or two. '_Akane is likely to do this to a random person who just pushes her buttons wrong. What it would have taken to make __**Kasumi**__ that angry..._' She shivered again and tore the papers into small shreds.


	10. Chapter 10

After a long period of quiet reflection, Nabiki looked at Ranma inquisitively. "That only leaves the last issue you had, the Neko-ken. What about the cat phobia?" Ranma returned her gaze for a moment, apparently thinking about his answer.

"It's still there, to a degree," he eventually replied. "I've been talking to a very good therapist about it for the last eighteen months or so. She doesn't know all the details of who I am, I go to her as Maiko, but I told her enough to let her understand the problem. She's been extremely helpful, and also wants to find Pop and have him committed." He grinned. "She doesn't like him at all. I told her that I'd lost track of him a long time ago after I escaped the child abusing son of a bitch." He shrugged a little. "It's kind of true. I see her three times a week for an hour or so. We ended up settling on a form of CBT as the best therapy. It's helped a huge amount with the phobia. Kas comes as well, just in case the Neko-ken is triggered, she can bring me out of it. But that hasn't happened for more than a year."

"So you're not afraid of cats any more?" she asked curiously. He shook his head.

"Not to the point of terror, like I was. I seriously don't like them, I'll admit, and the psychologist thinks I never will, but I can at least stand to be in the same room as one for a while. It looks like randomly setting me off into the Neko-ken state is over. I sure hope so."

Nabiki was impressed. Both by the fact that he'd sought therapy, and that he'd admit to it. The old Ranma might not have, being too embarrassed by something he saw as a weakness. She said as much. Kasumi and her husband exchanged glances, then he smiled again. "That's probably true. But the Neko-ken was the true weakness, an extremely dangerous one. You have no idea how close we came in the past to a bloodbath, in that state I wasn't functioning much above the level of a smart cat. If I'd been really angry..." He shuddered. "It's a pity I can't control the more useful manifestations of it, but I'd rather lose the whole thing than risk what could happen. I don't like not being in control of myself. That's the main reason I don't drink, aside from the horrible taste and the pointlessness of it."

By now it was about half past eight in the evening, the sky outside the living room windows was beginning to get properly dark. Ranma looked over at the clock hanging on the wall above the door to the kitchen. "I'm going to have to go out for a while. You guys can stay here, or come with me if you'd like." Nabiki watched as he disentangled himself from his wife, stood, turned female, then shimmered and changed into a different woman. This one had night-black hair, darker than anything the middle Tendo woman had ever seen before, with a brilliant blue streak running through it from a position off-centre over her forehead all the way back through the braid which she kept. She was a couple of centimetres taller than Ranma's normal female form, and as well developed, looking about nineteen. Her eyes were purple-blue, almost glowing in the light of the room, the gaze she cast back at Nabiki a little disturbing. When she smiled the brunette could see she had small fangs like Ryoga. Overall the effect was impressive and rather intimidating.

"Very nice. Who's this one?"

"Yori. Someone who doesn't take shit from magical girls _or_ demons." Her voice was beautiful, a smoky contralto that would make most men look to see where it came from. There were odd harmonics to it that made Nabiki shiver a little. "Yori has a little demon blood in her, you see. She doesn't like people who attack other people who are a bit different just because they're a bit different, and she particularly doesn't like the attacking people to cause damage to property or bystanders. She tends to express her displeasure physically." The girl grinned in a disturbing manner.

Ranma, or 'Yori', disappeared into her bedroom, coming back a little while later dressed in black silk clothes similar to the practice clothing she and Kasumi had been wearing that afternoon, but tighter and cut differently. There was a blue streak similar to the one in her hair running down the left side of the shirt. On her feet she was wearing black leather boots, quite stylish without being overtly feminine, while on her hands she had fingerless leather gloves, again black, contrasting with blue fingernails that looked very sharp. She'd removed the red bow and replaced it with an electric blue one. The end result was a bit like a fashion-conscious female ninja, someone who was genuinely dangerous. Nabiki looked her up and down for a moment with a smile, as she pirouetted to show off the complete ensemble.

"Yes, very nice indeed. Why female, though? Most of your alter-egos seem to be women." Ranma laughed.

"Only the ones you've seen so far. I've got as many male personae as female. _This_ is because it's more or less expected around here that people jumping around the rooftops doing impossible things will be attractive women in odd costumes. I really have to find out why one day. Oddly enough, I attract less attention looking like this than I would if I went out beating up monsters as myself. A bit different from Nerima, that place is much more equal opportunity insanity." Kasumi laughed, as did Nabiki.

"I made the outfit a while ago. It was fun, I haven't done much sewing since we left." Kasumi inspected her work with a proprietary eye.

"Like I said, this way with the clothes, hair, and so on, I only need to hold the illusion for the body, which is a lot less effort. I could keep this running pretty much indefinitely, even while asleep, if necessary. To be honest by now I might be able to do that with any of them, I haven't tested it recently. Like ki techniques, the more you use it the more you seem to have available. Another thing that irritates the magic users I know, I'm told magic doesn't work like that at all." She grinned cockily, the underlying Ranma coming through strongly for a moment. "I think they're wrong. Or maybe I'm just doing something new. Like the healing with ki, no one seems to have thought about it before, or at least not written it down anywhere. Whatever, it seems to work."

"You certainly seem to have developed more of a fashion sense in the last few years," Nabiki said with amusement. Ranma seemed both amused and pleased by the comment, not embarrassed at all. "So where are you going?"

'Yori' got an exasperated expression on her face. "I learned yesterday that one of these damn demon-hunter groups thought that some otherworldly horror was lurking in a building on the other side of the university, and that they had made plans to deal with it tonight. I think they're wrong, I have a pretty good idea who's actually in there. Otherworldly, yes, horror, not really. I've got to go and check, tell them to make themselves scarce if it's who I think it is, then stop those idiots tearing up half the campus. If it really is something dangerous I'll have to deal with that as well." She sighed in a put-upon way. "The life of a martial artist is fraught with peril." Nabiki giggled hysterically, she'd heard Genma say the same thing many times, but she doubted very much whether this was the sort of thing he had in mind.

Ranma noted her amusement with a smile, glancing at Kasumi. "You two want to come and watch?"

"Is is likely to be dangerous?" Nabiki asked with a small amount of trepidation, glancing at her sister and wondering at the light of eagerness in her eyes. Kasumi looked back with an odd expression.

"Possibly. Probably not. But it might be a lot of fun. Come on, we can show you around the neighbourhood afterwards." With a small grunt of worry Nabiki stood.

"Oh, all right. But if you start throwing ki balls around, I'm off." The disguised Ranma laughed.

"Fair enough." She produced a thin silver bracelet and held it out. Curious, Nabiki took it, inspecting it with interest.

"What's this?"

"It's one of the magical artefacts I got from my friends. Put it on, it'll stop anyone being able to identify you later." Hesitating for a moment, the brunette shrugged a little and did as requested. 'Yori' touched it with one finger. "There. It's activated."

"I don't feel any different."

The girl with the black hair smiled. "You won't notice it working. It only affects other people, more specifically ones who aren't present when it's turned on and aren't also using the same device. But it's working, I can sense it. If you went out naked and jumped around in the street, afterwards no one would be able to describe you, recognise you, or even have a usable photo of you."

Lifting the bracelet to her eyes Nabiki stared at it closely, then grinned. "I can think of all sorts of uses for something like this." Kasumi laughed.

"We'll need it back."

"Aww..."

"It won't come off unless you deliberately take it off either, so you can't lose it," Ranma added with an amused look at the woman's palpable disappointment.

"Neat. OK, now what?" Walking over to the glass doors that opened onto the balcony, the currently female martial artist opened one side and looked out.

"Now, I turn invisible and jump off the balcony." She grinned at the expression on Nabiki's face, before looking at her wife. "Meet you two at the medical block in a few minutes, all right?" At Kasumi's nod she faded from view. Nabiki stared.

"I still can't get over that. It's amazing." Walking out onto the balcony she looked down at the street, then around at the scenery, before rejoining her sister inside. "Did she really jump off? It's at least a fifteen metre drop to the road."

"That's nothing," giggled her sister. "Even I can do that." She giggled even more at the expression on the brunette's face. "The really good trick is jumping back." Disappearing into her room for a few minutes she came back wearing a similar set of clothing to those that 'Yori' had worn, only a very dark grey in colour with a deep green belt. "How's this?" she asked, turning around in front of Nabiki.

"It's... not at all like what I remember you wearing at home."

"But how does it look?" Kasumi seemed a little anxious. Her sister raised her eyebrows, then smiled.

"It looks nice. It does suit you, really, I just never pictured you wearing anything like that." She gaped a little when her sister once more changed with the heat-haze shimmer she was becoming familiar with, her hair going ice-blonde and her face and figure changing enough that she looked like a completely different person. She had green eyes now, that looked like emeralds in the pretty face that didn't resemble her own one at all, or 'Rika'.

"Yet another identity?" Nabiki was starting to lose track, wondering how these two could keep them all straight. The new version of her sister nodded with a small grin.

"This is Chou. She's a friend of Yori's, who sometimes comes with her." Her voice was pitched slightly higher than her own one, closer to Ranma's female form. With a shake of her head Nabiki laughed.

"You two are amazing. So, what next? I assume Ranma went invisible so no one would know where she came from while in that form? How do _we_ get out?" With an impish look 'Chou' waved her towards the practice room. The pair of women went up the stairs at the back to the roof, ending up staring at the building next door, some ten metres away, it's roof about three metres lower. Nabiki looked at the gap, then at her disguised sister, who seemed very amused. "No. No way. It's impossible." A shriek escaped her despite herself when her sister suddenly scooped her up in her arms as easily as if she was a bag of groceries, took a few steps back, then launched herself at the other building. One dainty foot pushed off from the railing of the roof wall, then they were flying through the night.

Finding herself unable to do anything at all other than wrap her arms around her sister and hang on, Nabiki was too scared to even close her eyes. The rooftops passed in a blur, impossibly long leaps interleaved among short runs at insane speed, the wind of their motion making her eyes water. In a very short space of time they had covered a couple of kilometres and were nearing the university main building complex, finally dropping four stories to the ground near where Nabiki had first encountered Ranma as Maiko. Kasumi lowered her sister's feet to the pavement but had to wait patiently for a few seconds until the other woman could open her hands and release her.

Shaking, Nabiki staggered over to a bench and sat down, staring at the ground and blinking while trying not to throw up. Eventually she recovered sufficiently to glare at her sister who was looking completely unrepentant. "Don't _EVER_ do that again, Kasumi!" she hissed, still trembling.

"Chou. Come on, it's so much fun!" The blonde girl smiled at her upset sister.

"It's _not_ fun. Not at all. No. Never again." Realising she was babbling a little Nabiki fell silent and just expressed her feelings with an evil gaze which only seemed to amuse the older woman. Looking around she noticed with some surprise that the few people in the area paid them no more than casual glances. It reminded her of Furinkan in the way that passersby simply accepted young women dropping several metres off a building as normal. With a shake of her head she stood, approaching her still-smiling sister warily. "Fine, let's go and meet Ra... Yori. But no more roof hopping, all right?" 'Chou' grinned at her and nodded, indicating the correct direction.

They walked quietly for another few hundred metres, the younger sister still shaken. Every now and then she glanced at her older sibling wonderingly, thinking that she'd definitely changed in a lot more ways than the obvious. She would never have believed that Kasumi would be able to roof-hop like the rest of the NWC, never mind enjoy it so much. Arriving at one large building at the far side of the university complex from their apartment, her companion waved a hand at it. "That's the medical teaching block. Yori should be around here somewhere." As if called the black-haired girl faded into existence in front of them, snickering at Nabiki's '_eep_' of shock.

"Don't _do_ that," the brunette snapped.

"Sorry." It was obvious she wasn't. Pointing to a building across the street from the edge of the campus, she added, "That's the one. I had a quick look around, I'm pretty sure I'm right about who's in there. No sign of the mini-skirted nuisances yet. I was waiting until you two turned up before I went over and checked it out."

"What are you going to do, knock on the front door?" Nabiki asked with slightly sarcastic curiosity. The other woman raised an eyebrow.

"Of course. Why not?" There didn't seem to be a good answer for that, so the three of them walked across the hundred or so metres intervening distance, going down an alley and arriving at a door with no markings on it. The building seemed to be a small commercial one of some sort, but there were no indications which company if any was associated with it. A small van was parked outside, and there were lights visible in some small windows to one side. 'Yori' walked confidently up to the door and knocked firmly, rocking back on her heels and waiting patiently for someone to answer. The others watched from a few metres away. Nothing happened, so she knocked again.

Eventually, the door slowly opened and a head peered around it slightly hesitantly. Nabiki stared, it belonged to someone or something that clearly wasn't human. The horselike ears on the sides of the head proved as much, never mind the fine scales covering it. Greenish cat-like eyes looked around, fixing on the figure of the black-haired girl waiting outside the entrance, then widened. "Yori!" the creature said in a deep voice that sounded pleased and surprised, as it flung the door open and leapt out. The younger Tendo sister gasped as the strange creature, which now she could see it properly looked like a sort of cross between a human, a horse, and some sort of huge lizard, enveloped the considerably smaller girl in it's arms. After a moment she relaxed as it became clear the thing was genuinely happy to see the young woman.

"Hi, Uthryyl." 'Yori' managed the name easily, despite the very strange pronunciation. "It's been a while. Can we come in?" The creature released her and stepped back, looking at her companions, then produced something that approximated a smile. It had a lot of teeth in it but was apparently friendly.

"Certainly." It held the door open and waved them through. Following the thing down the corridor in front of them Nabiki watched it's long tail sway from side to side, wondering what on earth she'd managed to get herself into. The disguised martial artist seemed completely accepting of the creature, talking to it as if to an old friend. When she glanced at her older sister she noticed the other woman didn't seem surprised either.

'_And here I thought things up until now were weird...,_' she thought to herself in mild panic. The creature Uthryyl led them through two more doors into a large room which contained three more of the things, along with a large pile of boxes. The others stopped what they were doing, which seemed to be loading the boxes onto a series of carts, looking at their companion and the three humans. Two of them smiled and called out Yori's name, while the last one seemed confused. After a moment it shrugged and went back to work.

While the three creatures and 'Yori' greeted each other, Nabiki wandered hesitantly over to look at the boxes the remaining one was still piling onto the carts. It glanced at her occasionally but didn't stop her or say anything. The young woman's eyebrows went up when she saw that according to the labels on the boxes, they were catering packs of expensive coffee beans and various high-end chocolate products. As they were still sealed it seemed likely that the contents were indeed what was on the labels. '_Are you seriously telling me that some... people, I guess... from some other world have come to Tokyo to stock up on __**coffee**__?_' She shook her head in disbelief, looking at the alien appearing creature which had just positioned the last box in it's load, sighing with very human-sounding relief that the job was over.

Going back to the small group of people and kind-of-people, she listened curiously. "So those damn girls think we're evil demons come to eat the populace?" Uthryyl asked with a clearly irritated expression. One of the other ones giggled in a feminine tone. 'Yori' sighed.

"You know what they're like. That group is a real pain. They're running on some sort of prophecy, or something along those lines, which apparently requires them to cleanse the earth of the demonic taint left over from some ancient kingdom millennia ago." She said this in a very sarcastic manner, making it clear what she thought of it all. "If it wasn't for the fact that they're pretty powerful even by magical girl demon hunter standards, I'd just find it funny, but they are genuinely dangerous. Plus, they cause even more damage to the fixtures and fittings than most. I don't want that sort of thing going on where I live."

The female one that had giggled said tiredly, "Why won't they believe we're not-evil demons here to eat the chocolate? We've told them enough times." Even Nabiki laughed at that. "We bought the stuff fair and square. The local supplier seems perfectly happy to trade coffee and chocolate for gold and silver." She looked very miffed.

'Yori' shrugged. "They're idiots. I've told you before. The best thing is to make sure you're gone by the time they turn up."

"We're just about done, actually," Uthryyl said, looking around. "One more van-load outside, then we can spin up the portal and take everything through." He thought for a moment. "If you and Chou could help us unload it we could save some time." 'Yori' glanced at her disguised wife and nodded.

"Sure. No problem." The lizard-like demon went over to the roller door to the outside loading bay and flipped the switch that raised it, while his companions grabbed several more empty carts and wheeled them over. Soon all four demons and the three humans were unloading the van, only taking a few minutes to get the carts packed. Once the empty van was locked again and the door was lowered, they arranged the carts into several neat lines. All four demons took up positions at the corners of a ten-metre square and concentrated. Nabiki could feel a static charge building up in the large room, a slight wind springing up and blowing some dust around. Blinking in surprise she watched from a safe distance as a point in the middle of the square, about a metre off the floor, began to glow.

Within seconds there was a large vertical tear in the fabric of reality hanging in the air in the middle of the warehouse, the bottom edge at floor level. The demons relaxed once the portal was established. "You're getting better at that," 'Yori' commented casually, making the brunette stare at her. Personally she was finding the whole thing pretty damn strange, it was only the fact that she'd been brought up in Nerima that stopped her running screaming into the night. Uthryyl grinned at the praise.

"Thanks. It's not easy, the power requirements are pretty significant, but it should be stable until we shut it down. Right, you lot, start taking the stuff through." The other three demons grabbed a cart each and pushed them towards the portal, the first one to reach it disappearing with a slight flash of light and a faint crackle. As Nabiki watched with amazement the other two did the same, only to reappear within a few seconds to take more carts through. There were enough that it was going to take several minutes to transfer the entire load. "Can I ask a favour?" the demon said. 'Yori' nodded.

"Sure."

"Could you arrange to take the van back to the rental company, and the keys for this warehouse back as well? It's all paid for, we rented both for a month. I don't want to leave any bad feeling behind, it's not good business." At the girl's nod he handed her an envelope and two sets of keys, which disappeared into her ki pocket. "Thanks."

Nabiki was still trying to work out how the hell something that looked like _that_ rented a van, even in Minato, when the roof fell in.


	11. Chapter 11

It wasn't the entire roof, but a pretty good chunk of it landed on the floor narrowly missing everyone, making one hell of a bang. Dust filled the room as five figures dropped through the hole in the ceiling and landed lightly on the floor, pointing an assortment of clearly mystical weapons at the demons. For a second there was silence as the two groups stared at each other. Nabiki recognised the skimpy colour-coded uniforms of one of the most famous magical girl groups, one that was as famous for it's collateral damage as anything else. One girl at the back of the little formation muttered, "Oh, crap. It's Yori." The one in front, the obvious leader of the group, apparently didn't hear this, opening her mouth and beginning a flowery speech about smiting the evil while striking a silly pose, only to nearly bite her tongue off when an absolutely furious 'Yori' appeared in front of her so fast no-one even saw her move.

"_**WHAT THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING YOU GODDAM IDIOTS?!**_" she roared at the blonde from less than twenty centimetres away, almost making her twin ponytails flap in the breeze. The girl shrank back in surprise, worry and no small amount of fear suddenly crossing her face. "_**Someone**_ is going to have to fix that damn roof, and _I'm_ not going to be the one to pay for it!" the black haired martial artist continued at slightly lower volume but with no less fury in her voice, along with a distinct tone of command which seemed to make them all listen even though they clearly didn't want to.

One of the other girls in the group, the one who had spoken earlier, said quietly, "I told you this was a bad idea. She _really_ doesn't like us." The one standing next to her, another blonde, nudged the girl, who Nabiki saw looked vaguely like a younger version of Akane, hard in the ribs, making her grunt in pain and glare at her compatriot.

At the front of the group, 'Yori' was haranguing the blonde leader who almost looked ready to cry. "I told you last time, stay the hell away from here. If there's a real threat, _**I**_ will deal with it. _**NOT YOU!**_ Every time you stupid bitches turn up someone gets hurt, or their house gets blown up, or their car gets destroyed. Most of the time it's all over something completely ridiculous as well. You come barging in, firing off energy attacks every which way, chasing some poor sod just because he or she looks a bit different. Last time three people ended up in hospital and about half a million of someone's yen was needed to fix the road and that shop. All over a guy who just wanted to see some movies."

"He was a demon..." the girl ventured. 'Yori' glared at her.

"He was a _tourist!_ There was no intention of causing any damage, or hurting anyone. He even paid for his ticket! The only people who got hurt, _**YOU**_ hurt. If I hadn't stopped you you could have killed someone. Fucking _hell_, you girls are hard of understanding. _**STAY AWAY FROM MY HOME AND MY FRIENDS!" **_She yelled the last few words at the top of her voice, making the poor blonde flinch away.

One of the girls at the back of the group raised her weapon and began to point it at the furious martial artist, only to stop dead when a voice in her ear said quietly, "Don't even think about it." She rolled her eyes to the side to see a dangerous looking gold-white light playing about the hand, pointed directly at her head from mere centimetres away, of the black-haired girl's companion, who she would have sworn was nowhere near her until now. Static tingled along her neck, making the hairs stand up. Swallowing hard, she slowly lowered her weapon again. The other woman nodded, but didn't otherwise move.

The blonde leader tried again. "But these are demons as well. They're corrupting the purity of the city." 'Yori' screamed in frustration, grabbed a double handful of the blonde's hair and viciously head-butted her between the eyes while growling in a way that made even the demons look nervous. Nabiki winced, as did all the rest of the blonde's comrades except the short haired one who had commented earlier, who for some reason seemed somewhat satisfied. When the blonde with the silly hairstyle struggled to her feet, clutching her bleeding nose and whimpering in pain, the martial artist gave her an enraged look.

"They're _shopping_." She stomped over to one of the carts, picked up a crate of chocolate bars, brought it back to the other girl and waved it in her face. "They love chocolate and coffee, but it's not available where they come from. So they buy it here. Buy it! You understand? Give money, get thing?" Handing the crate to Uthryyl who was watching with a wide grin on his toothy face, she spoke as if explaining things to a small and rather dim child. "This is all their property. They own it. The warehouse is rented by them. The van is rented by them. It's all completely legal. _**YOU**_ are trespassing, and have caused criminal damage to the building. You could have killed someone with that stupid move!" She pointed at the roof, or at least the hole where quite a large part of it used to be. Stepping back and crossing her arms she glared at all five girls, who seemed a mix between scared, worried, and embarrassed. Their leader had substantial pain added to the mix.

The demons had resumed moving their purchases through the portal, stopping occasionally to watch the black-haired girl give the demon-hunters a damn good talking to. It seemed to amuse them considerably. The leader of the group was still staring at 'Yori', who was so furious she was visibly glowing, outlined in a nimbus of purple-white light. It made the other girl extremely nervous. She remembered the last time she'd seen the black-haired girl this angry. That hadn't ended at all well for herself and her friends...

Three of the remaining girls were watching the demons go back and forth through the portal, every now and then sparing the fifth member of their group a glance. She was standing completely still, staring straight ahead while sweating profusely, very conscious of the threat from the blonde right next to her, who hadn't moved a millimetre. Eventually the demons finished transferring their goods, two of them going through the portal and not returning. The other two, the female one and Uthryyl, approached 'Yori' who was still glaring at the blonde leader. "We're done here. Are you going to be OK?" She nodded, not taking her eyes off those of the other girl.

"Yes. I'm sorry about all this mess. It won't happen again." The tone of her voice made it _very_ clear than it damn well better not happen again. The girl she was glaring at looked at the floor, embarrassed. "Take care, Uthryyl. Give my best to your wife." He smiled and slapped her on the back.

"Thanks, Yori. Sorry about the trouble. We can sort this out next time, if that's all right. See you later." Walking over to the portal he waved, as did the female, before they disappeared through it. A few seconds later it shrank away to nothing with a faint pop.

"Right. You lot, you're clearing all this up. I'm going to go over there and watch until you're finished. If you're _very_ lucky I won't tell the insurance company where you live." One of the other girls, one with long flowing black hair, snorted dismissively at this. The martial artist fixed her with a look that made her quail, raising one eyebrow. Prowling over to her with a graceful and dangerous gait, she leaned close and said something to her that made her go white. Nabiki could just hear what sounded like a list of names and addresses. The other four girls paled as well, exchanging worried looks. "Aside from anything else your operational security is a joke," 'Yori' commented sourly. She glanced at the one that looked a little like Akane. "You're the smart one, I'd have thought you'd have worked all this out." The girl gazed at her boots, very embarrassed.

Waving at the large pile of metal panels and support beams on the floor, 'Yori' invited them to get to work. Slowly, they walked over and began to pick up all the rubble. Nabiki helpfully handed the leader a broom she'd found leaning against the wall, smirking a little. It was close to performance art, the way that the disguised Ranma had dealt with the group. Once she'd gotten over the possibility of personal danger she'd found the entire thing extremely funny.

It took the team of magical girls nearly an hour to tidy up to 'Yori's' satisfaction. When they were finally finished, sweating and covered in dust, she walked over and inspected the work, looking up at the hole in the roof with a grunt of irritation. "God, you lot aren't subtle, are you?" She shook her head in disgust. "I'm serious. Do this again and you really won't like what I'll do. You won't like it _at all_." Picking up a hundred-kilo piece of steel girder as if it was weightless she started to whittle the end into a point with a short energy beam coming from her right hand. All five girls froze, staring in horror. "Now sod off."

They looked at each other then slowly filed out the exit. When she was sure they were gone, 'Yori' tossed the girder, or what was left of it, back onto the pile of debris with a clang. "Fuckwits." Nabiki walked over smiling.

"That was pretty funny. Are they all like that?"

"No, luckily. Some are nearly as bad as far as their lack of common sense goes, but don't have the raw power of that bunch. It's a good thing the others didn't come, there's several more of them. This lot seems to be the core though. They cause so much damage you wouldn't believe it." Sighing, she added, "One or two of the groups are actually pretty sane. My friends, for example. Some of them are batshit crazy. That lot is about in the middle sanity wise, near the bottom in common sense and respect for other people's property. They started off well, but got more and more over the top as time passed." Looking around the damaged warehouse she shook her head in irritation. "This is going to be expensive."

Nabiki looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"She means that we're going to end up paying for the repairs. Again." 'Chou' also sighed. "This place was rented by some friends, so we're going to arrange to get it fixed. We don't want Uthryyl and his people to end up with a bad reputation, they're decent people. The next time they come we'll get reimbursed but in the mean time we'll have to get this dealt with."

"How on earth did you end up friends with demons?" her sister asked, very curious. 'Yori' smiled.

"Quite easily, actually. I met them when they were buying a lot of ice cream a year or so ago. It turns out that their people have an enormous sweet tooth, and a massive caffeine habit. It's cheaper for them to import it from here than most other places they could get it, so they were in the middle of moving a couple of truckloads of ice cream through a portal when I detected it and went to have a look. We got to talking, they offered me some..." Nabiki cut her off with a laugh.

"Ah. I can see where this is going. The way to your heart is definitely paved with ice cream." Both 'Yori' and 'Chou' giggled.

"True enough. Anyway, they're friends of ours, and this is the second time that bunch of twits has crashed the party. There won't be a third one." Her face had hardened a lot. "Next time they try something like this I may start removing limbs." She glanced at her wife with a sudden smile. "I saw you threatening that fool earlier. Nicely done." The blonde smiled happily.

"Thank you. I thought it was a bit overdramatic myself, but she seemed to believe me." Her sister was grinning at her. She'd thought it was pretty impressive herself. "Shall we go and look around the neighbourhood for a while on the way home?" 'Chou' asked her sister. Nabiki stared at her.

"OK. But _no_ roof-hopping! Clear?" The other woman nodded with a smile, while 'Yori' looked puzzled. They left the building, the black-haired girl locking it behind them.

"I'll take the van back tomorrow and arrange to get the roof fixed as well." She looked at Nabiki. "We use a firm of contractors that started in Nerima, oddly enough. They know a lot about repairing damage from... unusual causes." The middle Tendo laughed.

"Not surprising. Unusual causes in Nerima are so common they're the usual causes." A thought struck her, making her ask, "I'm surprised you didn't detect those girls before they dropped through the roof. I'd have thought it was well within your abilities." 'Yori' looked annoyed.

"It is, but the inter-world portal kicked up so much interference it masked them until it was too late. If I'd been a couple of hundred metres from it I'd have felt them coming from a kilometre away. They radiate so much magic it's ridiculous. How they ever manage to sneak up on demons or anyone else reasonably sensitive who _isn't_ standing right next to an active portal is beyond me." The three women slowly walked back in the direction of the apartment building, one or other of the married pair pointing out things of interest on the way. Half-way back they stopped to watch as a group of very drunk students spilled out of a bar near the university, shouting and laughing. 'Yori' shook her head in disgust.

"I really don't see the point in getting drunk. I can almost understand drinking with some friends to relax a little, if that's something you enjoy and can stand the taste, but to deliberately put yourself into a state like that...?" She waved at a couple of young men who were staggering about the road, causing the light traffic to slow down amidst considerable sounding of horns. "That's just stupid." One of the men fell over in the road in front of a truck moving fast enough that it probably wouldn't be able to stop in time and she sighed, then jumped into the road, scooping him up and springing back to safety in one smooth motion. "Stop being an idiot, you idiot," she snarled, slapping his face a couple of times. Propping him on his feet she pushed him towards his friends who were watching in drunken disbelief. "Take this fool somewhere safe and make him lie down."

The young man staggered forward, landing in the arms of two other slightly less inebriated students, who held onto him while staring at the three women. One of them smiled at her, while the other frankly leered. "Thanks," the smiling one said. "We'll take him home."

"Would you like to come with us?" asked the leering one in a salacious manner. His colleague kicked him in the ankle quite hard.

"Shut up, you idiot," he said out of the side of his mouth, while still smiling at the three women who were watching him with interest. "Do you have any idea who that is?" His friend smirked, looking at the black haired girl's chest.

"Someone I want to get closer to." The saner one's eyes widened, while 'Yori's' narrowed.

"_Shut up,_ _shut up, shut UP_!" the first one whispered frantically. "That's Yori and Chou. For fuck's sake don't make them angry." His friend's eyes snapped to the smouldering ones of the martial artist and he gulped.

"Oh, _shit_," the young man mumbled, while Nabiki watched with cold amusement. 'Chou' had her hand on her female husband's shoulder, just in case. "Um, I'm really sorry, Miss Yori." He swallowed again. "Thanks for saving Jirou." Glancing at his friend he licked his lips, then pointed in a random direction. "We'll just be going now." The pair beat a hasty retreat with their semi-comatose burden, head hanging and feet dragging, slung between them. When they were safely away Nabiki snickered.

"Well, 'Yori', you seem to have something of a reputation around here." Her sister laughed, releasing her husband.

"There were a few, um, _incidents_ when we first moved in. She's still not used to being approached like that yet and tends to react... abruptly." Both sisters looked at the black-haired young woman who was gritting her teeth and watching the three men disappear into the distance. Nabiki nudged her.

"Take it as a compliment and let it go." The girl relaxed slightly, sighing.

"Sorry. It wouldn't normally upset me so much but I'm still kind of pissed off after what happened at the warehouse."

"You did seem to be pretty mad in there. I mean, head-butting a famous magical girl in the face? That's an interesting martial arts move." Nabiki had found it quite amusing, more for the expression on the girl's face than anything else. She certainly hadn't been expecting it. 'Yori' blushed.

"It was kind of spur of the moment. Those girls wind me right up, that one particularly for some reason." She chuckled. "Anyway, it worked. It wasn't elegant, I'll admit, but it was effective."

"I think you broke her nose."

"Oh, they're pretty tough. They've got some magical healing abilities as well, she'll get better. But hopefully she'll remember the pain and not be quite so eager to punch holes in other people's roofs next time." They walked along the street past several other bars and a couple of nightclubs, whose bouncers all nodded respectfully to 'Yori' as they passed. She stopped and chatted briefly with a couple of them who seemed to know her. Nabiki looked at her sister with her eyebrows up a bit.

"For the last year or so, ever since 'Yori' has been seen out and about, she sometimes gets involved in dealing with the locals who can't handle their drink. The bars and nightclubs like it, she doesn't involve the police but shuts down any trouble very quickly. That's another reason she has something of a reputation. Most of the second year and older students know her, or at least know _of_ her, and are very polite." She grinned. "Or just run away when they see her coming." The younger Tendo laughed, easily able to picture this. Rejoining them the martial artist looked amused.

"Apparently the word got around that I'm in a bad mood and people are suddenly being very careful not to start fights." Giggling, they moved on. After a while Nabiki was wondering how they intended to get back into the apartment without anyone seeing, but just as she was about to ask, both her companions stopped dead, turning and looking off to the right. "Damn. Now what?" 'Yori' said grumpily, getting annoyed all over again. 'Chou' glanced at her.

"It feels familiar." She nodded. Nabiki watched both of them wondering what was happening.

"aaaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHH!" The scream grew closer and louder, causing all three of them and several bystanders to look up. A figure flew over the roof of the building next to them with it's limbs flailing, crashing into the road before even the martial artists had time to react. 'Yori' and her wife ran over to the crater in the road, Nabiki following more slowly. When she got there they were helping another young woman to her feet. She was dressed in a now rather tattered outfit that was even less there that that of the previous group of magical girls, and looked extremely battered. She'd obviously been involved in a major fight. The fall hadn't improved her either. Her left arm was clearly broken and she was covered in wounds, a couple of which appeared quite bad. The various bystanders, having recovered from their shock, cleared out with alacrity.

"Yori," she gasped painfully. "I'm sorry, we couldn't think of anything else to do. This one is really bad. We're herding it this way. Help." 'Yori' seemed shocked at the state of the girl, Nabiki realising from her expression that she obviously knew the auburn-haired female. Spotting a familiar looking bracelet on her arm she also realised that this must be one of the group that the martial artist considered friends. Just then there was a crash of falling roof tiles and all the women spun, looking up to see something horrific falling off the roof of a building down the street, followed by three more girls dressed identically to the one bleeding in 'Chou's' arms. The creature landed on a parked car, crushing it flat in an explosion of flying glass, before rolling off what was left and slowly getting to it's feet. Nabiki stared in horror.

Unlike the chocolate-loving demons from before, which after the initial shock of their appearance had seemed fairly harmless and just a bit odd-looking, this thing was clearly not only very alien but extremely dangerous. Some three metres tall and covered in dark green chitin forming an exoskeleton, it loosely resembled a very large insect, but with only four limbs. All four terminated in vicious claws that dripped blood. The limbs were out of proportion to the body looking far too long. The head was a nightmare, something that would haunt Nabiki's dreams for months. Four huge compound eyes on short stalks swivelled around tracking each girl independently while a set of mandibles worked against each other, dripping some sort of liquid and occasionally uncovering a mouth that seemed to also have an unnecessarily large number of teeth in it. A long tail moved fluidly behind it, the end having several long spikes coming out sideways. This was clearly able to be used as a weapon as it also had blood on it.

The thing leaned forwards and roared at the three girls, who raised their various weapons and stepped forward. The one 'Chou' was holding gasped out, "It regenerates too fast. It's killed at least five people that I know of, and wounded several more. We found it eating one of the bodies. No idea where it came from, never seen one like it before. We've been trying to put it down for an hour so far. The portal it came from closed, we can't send it back." 'Yori' nodded grimly.

Glancing at her wife and her wife's sister, she ordered, "Take Tamiko over there and see if you can do something about that arm. I'm going to try to get this thing to follow me to the park, there's too many people in the buildings around here to deal with it properly." 'Chou' looked worried but nodded, gently supporting the wounded girl. The disguised Ranma spared her a quick smile before turning to look at the monstrous creature. "_**HEY!**_ Ugly thing!" A ball of ki shot from her hand and blew a crater in the demon's back, provoking it to produce a hissing scream that made everyone's ears hurt. Whipping around much faster than one would expect from it's size it fixed all four eyes on the black-haired girl, who muttered, 'OK, that got it's attention at least." The three magical girls on the other side of the thing started to move towards it but stopped when she looked at them and shook her head.

Stepping closer she fired another ki ball at it, hitting it in the chest. Once more the resulting explosion made it stagger slightly, screaming in rage. Nabiki watched wide-eyed from the sidewalk next to her sister, shocked by the noise and also the way the crater in the exoskeleton rapidly filled in, leaving no trace of a wound. "Damn. It really does regenerate quickly," 'Yori' commented. Suddenly breaking into a run she shot towards the thing before it could react, blurring out of the range of normal vision. There was a flash of purple-white light forming an arc and half it's left arm dropped onto the road. Yet another scream followed her attack, this one sounding very angry. Everyone watched as the arm regrew in a matter of seconds. The body part lying on the road dissolved into a foul-smelling liquid almost immediately.

"Oh my god", Nabiki breathed, horrified and scared. The thing took a couple of steps forward, slashing at the form of the martial artist, much faster than a normal person could have evaded but far too slowly to have any chance of tagging her. She moved out of range easily, then darted back in and cut off it's right arm with her ki beam. Nabiki thought hysterically that George Lucas would be after her for copyright violations if he ever saw this, the 'light-sabre' effect was very impressive. It even made a humming noise. In a detached state of mind she wondered if that was deliberate, for effect.

Once more the removed limb regrew in seconds. The creature was beyond furious by now, and had entered the scene in a pretty bad mood in the first place. Abruptly moving _much_ faster than it had up until now it only just missed 'Yori', who barely got out of the way in time. With a hard smile she produced a second energy sword in her other hand, each one about two metres long, then proceeded to remove all four limbs in a dazzling display of skill. The torso of the thing dropped to the road roaring in pain and fury, only to rise to it's regenerated feet ten seconds later. Moving back she waved her energy weapons at it, beckoning it forward. The thing eagerly took the challenge, charging forward with a roar, following her as she turned and ran. The other three girls looked at each other, shrugged, and dashed after them.

Nabiki stared, then turned to look at her sister who met her eyes with a worried gaze. "Is she going to be all right?"

"I hope so." The older sister turned her attention to the wounded girl in her arms, who was gently bleeding all over her clothes, having slipped into unconsciousness during the fight. Lowering her to the pavement 'Chou' inspected her carefully, then placed her hand over the worst of the wounds. Golden light flared beneath her palm and Tamiko twitched. Watching with amazement, Nabiki gasped when her sister removed her hand to reveal the wound had closed up and now looked like it was a couple of weeks old at least.

"Good god, Kasumi," she said quietly, "That's the most impressive thing yet." Her sister smiled but shushed her.

"Chou. Please, it's important." Nabiki smiled slightly, embarrassed.

"Sorry. But, that's really amazing. Ra... 'Yori' mentioned how she'd come up with it, but aside from that night I've never seen it in action. And my mind was sort of occupied at the time." Her sister glanced briefly at her and nodded, most of her attention on healing another wound.

"That's all right. Yes, it is amazing. It was one of the more difficult things to learn, it takes fine control and a certain mindset that she is a master of but most people find quite difficult to achieve. She's better at doing it without scarring, I'm faster." Finishing with the deep wounds, she turned her attention to the broken arm. "Here, hold her arm in this position. Don't move." Both hands glowed and Tamiko convulsed in pain even unconscious. "Hold it still!" she snapped. Doing her best, Nabiki leaned on the girl, maintaining her grip on the arm above and below the break. After thirty seconds or so 'Chou' leaned back, sweating a little. "That should do it. It's going to be pretty tender for a few days but it's mostly healed. We can finish that up later."

Reaching down she placed her hand in the middle of the girl's chest, once more golden light flaring around it. A few seconds later Tamiko's eyes opened. "Chou?" she asked weakly, looking up at the two faces gazing at her with worry. Suddenly sitting up, she grabbed her head in both hands, yelping in pain. "Owww!" She looked around, then flexed her arm. "Thanks. Where are Yori and the others?"

"She led it off to the park to get it away from people. I think she's going to do something impressive to it and didn't want to wreck the street," Nabiki said. Tamiko looked curiously at her, her eyes widening when she spotted the bracelet the brunette was wearing.

"Who are you?" she enquired. 'Chou' smiled at her.

"This is my sister."

"The mercenary one? Or the violent one?" the auburn haired magical girl asked with a quizzical expression. Nabiki flushed.

"The mercenary one," 'Chou' said with a laugh. Glancing at her sister who looked irritated, she amended her statement. "_Formerly_ mercenary one. Be nice, I missed her." Tamiko nodded, grasping her head again with a pained expression.

"Agh. I need some serious painkillers." Struggling to her feet aided by the blonde, she limped around in a circle testing her injuries, stopping after a moment and inspecting her clothes. "Damn it, I only just repaired this after the last time. Now look at it!"

The magical girl and the martial artist sister suddenly froze, then turned to look down the street. "Hell, that's going to be big," Tamiko whispered in shock. Nabiki thought she could feel something weird, as if her head was picking up static like a badly tuned TV. Almost immediately a purple flash like a huge electrical discharge lit the entire street, followed by a rising flare of purple-white light from somewhere a kilometre or so away beyond the buildings. Seconds later the sound reached them, an echoing bass thump that rolled down the street making everything vibrate. Nabiki jumped, watching in horror. Ranma had done _that_? It looked and sounded like a small nuke had detonated. Both her companions winced and held their heads. "Damn. How much power did she put into that for god's sake? It felt like enough to vaporise a building." Tamiko shook her head, tilting it to one side as if trying to get water out of her ear.

"That's left a mark," 'Chou' said with a tired smile. "At least it wasn't in the middle of the road." They started walking in the direction of the blast, both the Tendo girls assisting the other one who was still unsteady on her feet. The trip to the park took several minutes, the injured female warrior was limping badly still, but they eventually reached it. A few people including three policemen were standing on the pavement watching four figures on the grass to one side of a substantial hole in the ground. Nabiki stared in disbelief. The crater was nearly twenty metres across and at least one and a half deep in the middle, lined with what looked like dark glass. She could feel the heat coming from it from fifty metres away. There was no sign at all of the monster.

Several trees near the blast point seemed somewhat the worse for wear, their leaves a funny colour under the illumination from the street lights along the path everyone was standing on. Other than that there didn't appear to be any damage. 'Yori' was kneeling on the ground a few metres from the crater looking at it, while the three remaining members of the group of demon hunters sprawled on the grass, looking like they'd simply fallen over from exhaustion. 'Chou' nodded to one of the policemen as she walked past supporting Tamiko and he returned the nod, moving out of her way respectfully. Nabiki kept quiet and went along with it. As they approached 'Yori' stood up, stretching and grunting in mild discomfort.

"Damn, that thing hit like a wrecking ball," she commented, rubbing her side. Her clothing was torn and there was some blood on it. 'Chou' left Tamiko in her sisters care and moved quickly to support her husband, inspecting the wound carefully.

"Doesn't look too bad, it's mostly healed already." She glanced at the crater with her eyebrows going up. "Was that much power completely necessary?" she asked mildly, giving the other woman a look. 'Yori' nodded slightly shamefacedly.

"I may have overdone it a little. But it was really tough!" she pleaded, looking guilty. Her wife smiled.

"I hope the park authorities don't complain too much, that's all."

"They can fill it with water and make another duck pond," the black haired girl said with a quick grin. "It's probably saved them money in the end." 'Chou' shook her head with a long-suffering expression.

"I suppose we should be grateful you didn't light that off in the middle of town." Releasing her husband she glanced at the three magical girls, who were now sitting up and talking. "Are they OK?"

"More or less. I think Aiko may have some broken ribs, that thing kicked her into a tree pretty hard, but it's mostly just cuts and bruises." She looked around, then walked over to the policemen, Nabiki trailing her curiously. Behind them 'Chou' and Tamiko joined the other girls, the Tendo woman quickly checking them over and healing anything serious. "Hi, Sergeant. Sorry about the noise." The man looked at her with a neutral expression, then significantly at the large crater. She blushed. "And the hole." The policeman smiled slightly, one corner of his mouth rising for a moment.

"That's all right, Yori. I saw what you were fighting, I'm just glad we got away with only some minor civic remodelling. Compared to what happens in the rest of the ward this is nothing." He stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it around. "Mind you, I'm going to have trouble hearing for a week after that." She grinned.

"I'll stop by the station tomorrow and give you a report, if that's OK? Also, there's a squashed car and a damaged roof back by the sports bar, you know the place?" He nodded. "Let me know who the owners are and I'll pass on the details." They shook hands and the police left. Nabiki had watched all this with a certain bemusement. As they walked back to rejoin her sister and the four female warriors, she looked curiously at the martial artist.

"That seemed remarkably painless." 'Yori' smiled.

"Yes, we have an arrangement with the police, they're nearly as pragmatic about this sort of thing as the ones back in Nerima are. I do my best to keep the collateral damage to a minimum, they keep everyone else out of it. They're not stupid, they know full well when they're out of their league and stay well back. Most of them seem to appreciate us dealing with the odd problem for them. Since we moved in the rate of damage from this sort of thing dropped off a cliff which has made pretty much everyone in the area grateful. We get cut a lot of slack when something _does_ go wrong, like tonight, as a result."

"What was that about the car and the roof?"

'Yori' sighed a little. "Insurance claims can be difficult to work out around here. It's not fair to deprive someone of their car, for example, just because some stupid monster from one of the lower hells decided to land on it and the insurance won't pay up. If we have to, we sort out the damage claims. Sometimes it's just a matter of going to the insurance company and asking nicely." She grinned nastily, making it clear that 'nicely' might be a variable. "Worst case we pay for it through a trust we set up a couple of years ago. Local businesses contribute to it as well, a second line of insurance in a way. It doesn't get talked about much outside the area, no one wants to upset the cart, but people are pretty pleased about it around here. That also goes a long way to keeping them happier."

"You seem to have things well in hand", Nabiki commented, impressed. The thoroughness of the arrangements was remarkable. 'Yori' nodded glumly.

"Pretty much. I just wish it wasn't needed. I don't seem to be able to go anywhere without some weird shit happening sooner or later. At least around here everyone is more or less used to it." Arriving at the group of women, all of whom were now standing, she looked around. "Nice to see you guys again. Pity you didn't call ahead." They all smiled painfully.

One of them, a short brunette with blue eyes, sourly said, "It's not like we had a choice, Yori. That thing was handing us our asses on a plate." The martial artist chuckled.

"I can see. You look like you've been through a blender. Where the hell did it come from?" The young woman shrugged in a disgusted manner.

"Not a fucking clue. We were out dealing with some pretty innocuous stuff, some Yakuza thugs who were robbing a jewellery store, when we detected the portal opening. We went to find out what was going on, thirty seconds later we were in a fight for our lives." An unhappy expression crossed her face. "It had already killed at least five people in a house. Then it started eating them." Everyone looked upset and disgusted.

"We need to find out where it came from, why, and how. One was bad enough, if more turn up that would be a problem." 'Yori' thought for a moment, then added, "And if someone brought it here deliberately I would like to talk to them." Everyone noticed she was glowing slightly and stepped back, except for 'Chou' who moved closer and hugged her. After a moment the faint aura subsided.

"Later, love. Right now we need to get out of here." Looking around at the dozen or so spectators still watching from a distance, she motioned slightly with her head. Her husband followed her gaze and nodded in a tired manner.

"True enough." Glancing at the group of skimpily dressed magical warrior girls, she asked, "You guys want to come back and rest?" They exchanged glances and agreed. "Aiko, do you have enough power for a teleport? We can drop the wards for a few seconds from here." The short brunette pulled out a golden talisman in the shape of a pair of wings, hanging on a chain around her neck, and looked at it for a moment.

"I'm low. If you can give me a boost we should be OK, though." 'Yori' reached out and held the thing with her fingertips briefly, a bright purple glow running over it and then subsiding.

"Is that enough?" The girl nodded.

"More than enough. Thanks." 'Chou' concentrated for a moment then glanced at the girl.

"The wards are down, you've got ten seconds. Aim for the practice room please, it's easier to clean." Motioning her sister over from where she was watching a couple of metres away, she moved closer to the girl herself as did the others.

Aiko looked around to make sure everyone was in range. "OK. Get ready. 3.2.1." There was a flash that left the spectators rubbing their eyes. When they could see again the park was empty. They all looked impressed, then wandered off in small groups comparing notes and rating the evenings excitement. Everyone felt it scored at least eight out of ten.


	12. Chapter 12

Nabiki staggered across the polished wooden floor of the practice room, collapsing near the wall with her head spinning. "That was worse than the roof-hopping," she mumbled, lying on the floor watching the ceiling gently spin. Her sister reverted to her normal appearance with a sigh, walking over and kneeling beside her.

"It will pass quickly. The first time through a teleport is always disorienting. I threw up for ten minutes the first time I experienced it." Kasumi patted her sister on the shoulder, then got up and returned to the others. Aiko was sitting on the floor with an exhausted look on her face, Ranma in her normal female shape squatting beside her healing her ribs. She looked up at her wife.

"I think these guys should stay the night, they're in no shape to go home right now." Kasumi nodded agreement.

"I'll get the guest rooms ready. Two of you are going to have to share, if that's OK?" She looked quizzically at the magical girl group. Tamiko glanced at Aiko, then smiled.

"I don't mind sharing with Aiko if she's OK with it." The brunette agreed, wincing as Ranma finished healing her ribs.

"Ow. Thanks, Ranma." She got to her feet with some aid from the red-head. "And thanks for helping us. That thing was a handful. If you hadn't been here it could have become unpleasant." She looked curiously at the martial artist. "On the way over, even in the middle of all that, I could have sworn I felt a portal form."

"Yes, it was Uthryyl and his crew on another shopping trip." Aiko laughed painfully, clutching her side.

"I hope they left some chocolate for the rest of us. That's the third time this year. He must be making a fortune at home from it." Ranma smiled.

"Probably. He certainly seemed in a good mood. Until you know who decided to drop through the roof." She gave a quick description of the intervention of the other group of magical girls and what had happened. Aiko started laughing again, as did the other three.

"Seriously? You head-butted her?" A slightly embarrassed but also amused Ranma nodded.

"Right in the face. Broke her nose. She looked like someone had eaten her puppy." The warrior women howled with laughter, as Nabiki sat up and watched, feeling much better. There didn't seem to be much love lost between the two groups, she reflected with interest.

"Serves them right. That blue-haired girl is all right, but most of the rest of them are gung-ho idiots. I'm constantly surprised they haven't killed any innocents yet," Tamiko said with a frown. "It's only a matter of time." Ranma sighed.

"I know. Their stupid prophecy seems to have made them believe anything they do is for 'The Greater Good'." She made little air quotes in a sarcastic manner. "No common sense, they just jump right in. If it wasn't for the fact that they seem to have quite a high hit rate on real problems I'd be even more annoyed about it all. I just wish they'd go on a course on threat assessment or something, not simply dive in guns blazing at the smallest hint of something from another world. It makes relations with legitimate travellers very difficult. I keep having to apologise to someone they've had a go at." The expression on her face made it clear she wasn't impressed. Nabiki giggled at the concept of magical girl training courses, wondering wildly if this was something the Minato universities should teach. Glancing at her Ranma quirked an eyebrow. She couldn't work out how to explain her thought so just shrugged helplessly.

The red-head grinned, having some idea of what she was feeling. This must all be a bit much for her. "Exciting night out, hmm, Nabiki? Was it what you were expecting?" The brunette laughed a little hysterically.

"Is it always like this? If so, how exactly have you gained by leaving Nerima?" Ranma snickered.

"No, tonight was weird even for this place. Not the weirdest night I've ever had, even back in Nerima, but pretty strange. Most of the time it's much quieter, I went to quite a lot of trouble to make sure of that." She looked at the various people standing around her. "Come on, let's go and sit down. You guys can wash up, we have some robes you can borrow, then Kas and I can finish healing anything that needs it. Anyone want something to eat?" Several heads nodded. The entire group went into the living room, then split up, Nabiki slumping onto the sofa with a sigh, the four magical girls heading for the various bathrooms. They clearly knew their way around. Shortly the middle Tendo sister was alone in the room. She leaned back and closed her eyes, thinking on the last few hours with wonder. A few minutes later, half-asleep, she heard light footsteps and opened one eye, then the other when she saw it was her sister. Kasumi sat beside her handing her a cup of tea.

"I know you prefer coffee, but this is less likely to keep you awake," she commented with a small smile, sipping her own cup. Her sister took the offered tea and tried it.

"Thank you." They sat in companionable silence for a little while. Eventually Nabiki turned her head and studied her sister, who returned her gaze with a familiar unreadable smile.

"You have a very strange life," she commented. Kasumi merely sipped her tea. "I mean, we just _teleported_ from a park a kilometre away into your house, after your husband, who was female at the time and disguised with a shape-shifting illusion spell, blew an enormous crater in the ground in the process of disposing of some weird man eating monster from a different dimension. There are four magical girls using the bathrooms right now. That same husband is more of a magical girl than they are!" She shook her head. "Not to mention the demons with the rented warehouse full of chocolatey goodness, which they're exporting to hell or something like that. And the _other_ magical girls, and everything else." She drank some more tea. "It's weird." Kasumi grinned at her.

"It's never boring." Nabiki nearly choked as a sudden attack of the giggles caught her. When Ranma came in a minute or two later having showered and changed her clothes, she looked at the two sisters giggling together on the sofa with a raised eyebrow. Nabiki pointed at her and whispered something to her sister which made them laugh until tears ran down their faces. The red-head shrugged, heading for the kitchen.

Eventually the whole group of seven people was sitting around the table, having a late meal. Nabiki wasn't hugely hungry, since the meal earlier had been quite large, but still ate something, while the others were ravenous. She looked around the table at the two familiar faces and the four new ones. She knew the names of two of them, but the other two hadn't said much yet or introduced themselves. The group seemed to have a higher average age than the ones that had dropped in on the warehouse, looking like they were late teens to early twenties. The other lot had been around sixteen or seventeen. Ranma noticed her glances and correctly interpreted them. "That's Fumiko and Misaki." Fumiko, a tall girl with short dark hair dyed blonde at the tips and grey eyes smiled at her over her chopsticks, while Misaki, who looked similar enough to be either a sister or a cousin, but with light brown hair and almost black eyes, was concentrating too hard on eating to do more than grunt.

"Forgive her, we haven't had much to eat today. She's permanently starving anyway." Fumiko grinned, then went back to eating.

"She doesn't do much more than grunt either," Aiko commented with a sly smile. Misaki stopped eating and glared at her, then shrugged with another grunt and went back to shovelling food in as fast as possible. Everyone laughed. "Case in point," the short girl said, giggling.

Ranma shifted to male, getting up to refill the teapot. Tamiko watched him leave the room, shaking her head in wonder. "I don't think I'll every get used to that no matter how many times I see it." She glanced at Kasumi with a grin. "So which do you prefer in the bedroom?" Everyone stopped eating and stared at the eldest Tendo, who blushed. After a moment she produced a small, remarkably perverted smile and sipped her tea, not saying anything. Tamiko laughed and saluted her with her chopsticks, resuming her meal. Nabiki studied her sister for a while, wondering, as Kasumi met her gaze evenly. Deciding it was none of her business while at the same time being quite curious, Nabiki went back to eating as well. When Ranma came back he was met by six grinning women.

"What?" he asked, feeling slightly worried. They all burst out laughing. "Women are weird," he muttered, sitting down amidst even more laughter. The young man sat and sulked for a moment, feeling surrounded, before looking at Nabiki. "I'm going to have to relieve you of that bracelet." She smiled, slightly disappointed.

"I was hoping you forgot."

"I'll just bet you were." He smirked. "But I think a Nabiki Tendo with effective invisibility might be a bit too much for Nerima." Laughing, she removed the device and handed it over. "If you ever _really_ need it let me know, I think we could help you out." Making it vanish he poured more tea for everyone.

Nabiki noticed a few minute later that she seemed to have massive difficulty remembering the faces of the four newcomers. When she looked at them directly, everything was perfectly normal, but seconds later she found their faces were just a blank spot in her mind. Aiko noticed her looking at them intently, then away, furrowing her forehead in an attempt to remember. "It's the bracelets. Ours are still on. While you were wearing one it neutralised the effect, but because you weren't present when they were activated it still affects you." She glanced at Ranma and Kasumi. "Can we trust her?" They looked at each other before nodding. "OK." Something indefinable changed about her. Nabiki inspected her for a moment trying to work out what it was, then glanced away. This time she could remember her face.

"That's very strange. I can see how it would be useful, though, in your line of work." The other three also deactivated their identity masking devices. Tamiko spoke up.

"We have to be careful. You start to get very paranoid when you think about how some people might want to seek revenge, or attack you, something like that. You get a lot more paranoid when you think about your families, especially if they don't know what you are and what you do."

"So how _does_ one become a magical girl, anyway?" Nabiki asked curiously. Indicating Ranma with a finger, she said, "I know how he did, but what about the rest of you?" Ranma looked insulted.

"I am not a magical girl." His sister-in-law stared at him.

"_Really?_ A man who _magically_ becomes female? Who uses illusion _magic_ without even thinking about it? You're more a magical girl than _they_ are." The four females turned to look at him with interest.

"She's right," Fumiko said with a grin. Misaki nodded, still eating. The grunt this time was affirmative. Sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms defensively the martial artist grumbled.

"_Not_ a magical girl," he muttered to himself, staring daggers at the innocent plate in front of him. Laughing, Aiko turned back to Nabiki. Kasumi leaned over and put an arm around her husband comfortingly, but her eyes were twinkling.

"It varies. There are all sorts of stories, some based around reincarnation, old gods or demons, or magical artefacts from the deep past. In our case it was sort of a mix, a statue of an ancient being, no one knows if it was a god, a demon, an alien, or what. We ran across it on a school trip years ago in a museum in Kyoto. One thing led to another, we kind of got caught up in a spell gone bad, next thing you know we have these weapons and some magic powers and tools. It was a bit of a shock. For a while we tried to pretend it never happened, but the weirdness kept finding us. In the end we didn't have much choice."

"Who decided on the uniforms?" Nabiki was smiling a little, they really were extremely immodest. She could see why Ranma had found them so irritating. Aiko groaned.

"Not really our choice. When we use the magic, which gives us a large boost in speed and strength, our clothes turn into those things. Unfortunately they don't change back." The girl appeared annoyed. "I lost several really nice outfits because of that at first." She sighed. "Unlike some magical girl uniforms these ones aren't armoured or anything useful like that. They just expose as much skin as possible. Whoever designed that spell was a real letch." Tamiko laughed.

"She hates them. I don't mind, but I've got nice legs." All three of her team-mates gave her nasty looks, while Nabiki giggled.

"So why were you annoyed about having to repair the uniform earlier, if you can just make new ones?"

The auburn-haired girl looked at her as if she was mad. "Clothes are expensive! I don't want all my nice dresses turned into more uniforms."

"Ah. I see." It seemed a fairly silly argument but she could accept it.

"_Some_ magical girls get fancy transformation sequences with pretty lights and sounds. _We_ have to find somewhere to change, or lose yet another set of clothes." Aiko seemed pretty grumpy about the whole affair. Brightening up, she grinned and glanced at Ranma. "At least that meant we had spares when Ranma stood in for me. We're even about the same size." Everyone looked at the martial artist again, who looked embarrassed. Nabiki nearly lost it again, picturing him in female form wearing one of their uniforms. Having seen one she found it even funnier than when she'd imagined it earlier.

"Perhaps you can model for us later?" she suggested, giggling manically when he glared.

"No chance."

"Oh, come on Saotome! Let us see your long smooth legs!" Kasumi collapsed in laughter, her sister not far behind her. The other four were giggling, even Misaki having to stop eating for a moment.

"It's not funny. Shut up." He crossed his arms again and glared at them which only made them laugh harder.

When the laughter died down, Tamiko glanced at Nabiki, then at Ranma. "If Nabiki here has found you, does that mean you're going to approach your family now?" Kasumi and her husband looked at each other. With a sad sigh, Ranma shook his head.

"I don't think so. To be honest, if I never see any of them again it wouldn't worry me much. I know Kas misses her other sister and her father, but as for me... _My_ father is a child abusing drunkard, while my mother is missing some fairly important marbles. Akane very nearly drove me to commit either suicide or murder." They all looked sympathetic, and a little scared by the concept, knowing damn well how dangerous the martial artist was even when _not_ homicidally angry. "As for the rest of that lot of lunatics? Cologne is a manipulating bitch, if we're being polite. Oh, sure, I learned a lot from her, and I think she still has a lot I'd love to learn, but anything she ever taught me came with huge strings attached. Shampoo is in many respects a nice girl, and a fine warrior, but she's as obsessive as Akane about me although less obvious about it. Mousse is as obsessive as that about _her_, and _is_ that obvious. Ryoga is just a pain. Ukyo... Her I kind of miss."

Falling silent he reflected on the chef. "She was pretty, intelligent, a good martial artist, and a very good cook." Turning his head to look at Kasumi, he added, "I already have one of those, though." She held his hand with a pleased smile. "I hope she and Konatsu make a go of it, I really do. They're both good people, probably the best of that lot." He thought about what he'd said, then shrugged. "No, all things considered I'm in no hurry to ever meet any of them ever again. The only ones I could stand either came with me or eventually tracked me down." Grinning at Nabiki he squeezed Kasumi's hand, then picked up his chopsticks. Aiko looked at his wife.

"What about you, Kasumi?" She looked sad.

"I would like to see Akane and Father again. I do understand what Ranma means, I know what he went through. But they're my family. One day, perhaps."

"Except for Akane, the rest of them do seem to slowly becoming more sensible," Nabiki commented. "Father and Genma seem to be doing fairly well as teachers, I think. It's definitely been good for our father, he's much more like the person I remember from when I was little. Genma is still a lazy idiot, but he's actually working now. It's made quite a difference." Ranma listened with a neutral expression.

"This may be true. But I can never forget what he put me through in the name of training. Oh, it was effective, I'll give him that. But I'm pretty sure that there are methods equally as effective that are less psychologically damaging." Shaking his head in disgust, he ate a few more bites. "A couple more years of him, and I would either have snapped and slaughtered everyone in Furinkan, or killed myself. Or both. Akane and the rest were pushing that timetable to a matter of weeks." The dark-haired young man put his chopsticks down and stared at his bowl, while everyone else looked at him uncomfortably.

"It was so close. So _very_ close. If things had worked out even slightly differently..." Putting down her own chopsticks Kasumi got up and knelt next to him, putting her arms around him.

"It didn't happen then and now it never will, my love. You've grown past that. The man I love is so much better than what those people tried to force him to be. I'm more grateful than you can possibly imagine that I was finally able to see that." Ranma looked at her for a long moment while the others watched, before his hand came up to cup her chin.

"If it wasn't for you... Don't ever leave me, Kas."

"I won't." There was silence for a while, before she returned to her own chair and they resumed eating. The mood, which had become somewhat melancholy, quickly improved as Fumiko started telling dirty jokes, rapidly reducing them to tears of laughter.

After the meal the whole group retired to the sofa, which was just large enough. Swapping stories of ever more unlikely events, the four girls and Ranma and Kasumi tried to top each other, while Nabiki listened with amazement. Some of the stories sounded insane even to her, but she was assured they were all true. Eventually, Kasumi looked at her watch. "It's nearly one AM. I need some sleep, and I'm sure you four must be tired as well after tonight." Aiko nodded while Misaki yawned hugely, setting off everyone else.

"Very true. Thanks for the meal, and the beds. See you guys in the morning." The four girls trooped off to their various bedrooms, quietly talking amongst themselves. The three people left behind looked at each other.

"This has been a very unusual day. But, aside from the moments of extreme terror, a lot of fun." Nabiki grinned tiredly at her sister and her brother-in-law.

"When do you plan on going back?" Ranma asked. The brunette considered the question. "There's no hurry," he hastily added. "I'm not trying to suggest you should leave. I know you and Kas still want to talk as sisters." Nodding, Nabiki grinned at him.

"Don't worry, I know what you mean. I was thinking probably tomorrow afternoon. I can catch a train at about three, if I remember the timetable." She'd explained her roundabout method of travelling, which Ranma approved of from a security viewpoint. It was rather tedious though.

"Would you like me to ask Aiko to teleport you back? Or at least to somewhere close to home, it would cut a lot of travel time." With a slight shudder Nabiki remembered her first experience of teleportation. Kasumi looked at her, correctly deducing from her expression what she was thinking.

"It won't be nearly as bad the second time. You'll only feel a bit dizzy for a second or two. Trust me." Reluctantly, she did, and nodded.

"Thanks. That's probably a good idea."

"OK, I'll ask her in the morning." Looking at his wife, he added, "I'm heading for bed. See you in a while." The martial artist stood and with a wave to his wife's sister left the room. Left alone, Kasumi and Nabiki looked at each other.

"You must visit more often, sister," Kasumi said with an impish smile. "All sorts of interesting things happen when you're here." She giggled, Nabiki joining her for a moment.

"I'm not sure I could take much more of that sort of 'interesting thing', sis. I'm amazed you seem to enjoy it so much." The two of them talked for another half hour, before heading off to bed. Kasumi gave her sister a spare set of pyjamas, which she quickly changed into before sliding under the covers. Turning out the bedside lamp she was asleep almost instantly.


	13. Chapter 13

When Nabiki emerged blinking into the light the next morning, fairly late, she found Ranma and Tamiko in the kitchen making breakfast. The martial artist handed her a cup of coffee with a grin. "You still need this to get revved up in the morning, I see." She took it with her eyes half shut, drank half of it in one go, then nodded.

"Thanks. I really can't get going without caffeine." Leaning against the wall next to the door she watched the others work for a moment. "Where are Kasumi and the rest? And for that matter, have you seen my clothes?" Looking down at the pyjamas she was still wearing she admired the pattern for a moment.

"Your clothes are in the dryer, Kas washed them before you got up. They'll be done in about twenty minutes. Your sister is in the practice room beating up the rest of the team." Tamiko giggled.

"She calls it training them, but we all know she just likes showing off." Ranma grinned.

"I taught her well..."

Laughing, Nabiki left to track down her sister, who was as advertised giving Aiko, Misaki, and Fumiko a hard time. The three magical girls were armed with bo staffs, standing in for their normal weapons, with which they were frantically attempting to hit Kasumi. Not very successfully as it turned out. One or two blows landed but the majority either missed completely or were deflected easily. "Stand still, damn it!" shouted Fumiko, swinging wildly. Kasumi giggled, jumping over the swing and tagging her on the top of the head. Nabiki watched from the door, coffee forgotten for the moment, as her normally reserved elder sister jumped around the room like a grasshopper on PCP, making a complete mockery of the entire group. Shaking her head she sipped her drink, settling down to watch.

Eventually Aiko managed to land a decent blow, making the older woman stop and congratulate her. She looked pleased that one of them had finally got her. The other two grumbled about it while Aiko smiled. "Damn, you're quick," she commented.

"Thank you." Kasumi bowed, happy with the praise. "Breakfast should be ready now. Shall we go and eat?"

"I'm going to have to shower all over again," Fumiko complained, handing her staff to Kasumi and heading into the living room. Misaki grunted agreement, pulling an apple out of her pocket and taking a bite out of it. "Don't you _ever_ stop eating?" her friend asked peevishly. "Why you're not as fat as a hippo I have no idea." Aiko watched them go with a smile, then helped Kasumi put the staffs away in the storage room. Walking over Nabiki looked at her sister with renewed awe.

"You're amazingly good," she said. "It's very obvious that Ranma trained you, it's like watching a taller brunette version of his female form in action. It would drive Akane nuts." Kasumi smiled slightly, then looked a little sad.

"That's a pity. Poor Akane."

"That's the violent sister, correct?" Aiko asked curiously. Both sisters nodded.

"I'm afraid so. She has... impulse control problems is a polite way of putting it." Kasumi shook her head in worry. "Enough training to be very dangerous, not enough to have any discipline, anger control issues, and sufficient strength to pick up a small car and hit you with it." Aiko winced.

"Ick. That sounds like a real problem."

"It could well become one," Nabiki said, as they headed back to the front of the apartment. "I hope it doesn't, she's got it in her to be as destructive as that thing last night. And I really don't want my baby sister to get turned into a smoking crater because it was the only way to stop her."

"Oh my, Nabiki!" Kasumi gasped, suddenly sounding exactly like the middle sister remembered from her younger days. She started laughing, which caused both the other women to stare at her as if she was insane. It took several minutes to explain what was funny. Tamiko was in the process of bringing several plates full of breakfast to the table. Everyone sat, while she went back to the kitchen, returning shortly with Ranma, both of them laden with more plates. Breakfast itself was a leisurely affair, no one was in any hurry to finish. They talked for nearly an hour after finishing the food, Kasumi getting up at one point to empty the dryer and iron Nabiki's clothes for her.

Handing them to her, neatly folded and still warm, she looked at the demon hunter team. "We probably have some spare clothes for you as well if you need them. Your uniforms are a bit tatty." Aiko grinned at Ranma.

"Will you lend me a dress?" He frowned while the others laughed.

"Not my favourite blue silk one," he said, making them all stop and stare at him, while Kasumi giggled and he suddenly smiled. No one had expected that response. "I've got some spare jeans and a top that should fit."

"My clothes should fit the rest of you." Fumiko looked happy.

"Thanks, Kasumi. Those uniforms are bad enough without walking around with half the rear torn out."

Turning to Nabiki, Aiko said, "Ranma asked me if I could take you most of the way to Nerima when you leave. Is the central train station in Suginami close enough?" The middle sister nodded.

"That's fine. It's only twenty minutes from Furinkan."

"OK. Ranma will call me when you're ready and I'll teleport back here, then take you there." She looked at the martial artist, who agreed. "We need to get the timings just right. This place is warded to an absolutely insane level, and if the anti-teleport wards aren't down, you don't bounce so much as splash." She shuddered, picturing the result. Nabiki suddenly had second thoughts. Correctly divining her worries Kasumi reassured her sister.

"It's perfectly safe. We leave a hole, Aiko teleports in, then out again. There's no danger. It's only people we're not expecting who would have problems, and all the ones we _want_ coming by know enough to call first. The list is very short."

Looking bemused Nabiki commented, "I still find it difficult to accept you even _have_ a list of people you don't mind teleporting into your home! It's insane." The others grinned at her.

"This lifestyle takes a bit of getting used to," Fumiko smiled. "You do eventually. In any case, Ranma has told us all sorts of stories of Nerima, that place is even nuttier than here! Surely you got used to _that?_"

"It didn't affect me so directly, in most cases," the Tendo woman replied. "It was more something that got Ranma and Akane, or people like that. You know, crazy people who knew what to expect." They all laughed.

Once the breakfast was finished, Kasumi went to dig out the clothes they were lending the girls, while Aiko and Tamiko helped Ranma clear the table and clean up. A little while later they went into the practice room again. The girls, now dressed in the borrowed clothing with their damaged uniforms in a bag that Misaki was holding gathered around Aiko, who glanced around at them then looked at Nabiki. "Let me know when you're ready, OK?" Switching her gaze to Ranma and Kasumi, she smiled her thanks. "Sorry about dropping all that on you last night, but thanks very much for the save. And the meal, the room for the night, and the clothes! I'll bring them back when I come to pick up Nabiki." A second later the group of young women disappeared with a bright flash of light, causing Nabiki to swear in shock and rub her eyes. She was irritated to notice that Ranma and Kasumi had looked away at exactly the right moment.

"You couldn't have warned me?" she complained. Ranma shrugged.

"Sorry. I thought you knew."

"How the _hell_ would I know?" she snapped, wiping her watering eyes again. Kasumi handed her a handkerchief.

"OK. Now you know." Ranma grinned at her. She glared a little, but relented when her sister smiled at her as well. Muttering to herself she followed them back into the living room. Walking over to the main window Ranma looked out, then turned back to them, becoming female in the process. "I'm going to go and return Uthryyl's van now. Plus I need to arrange to get the warehouse roof fixed and tell the property agency what happened." She sighed, looking irritated once more. "Damn magical girls." Taking on her Yori aspect she opened the balcony doors, faded from sight, then presumably jumped over the edge. Nabiki shook her head in amused wonder.

"Doesn't she ever use the door like a normal person?" With a giggle Kasumi moved to close the balcony doors again then sat on the sofa.

"Not if she can help it." Sitting beside her Nabiki looked out the window for a while before turning to her sister who was watching her with a familiar serene look.

"Your friends are interesting," she commented.

"They're very nice people. They attract nearly as much insanity as Ranma does, the poor things, but at least there's several of them to deal with it. My dear husband had to handle everything nearly single handed for so long." Sighing, she looked around the room for a moment. "It's such a shame he went through all that. He deserved better. But at least now I think he has it. I know I do."

"I will admit, crazy abilities and all, I've never seen you, or him, so happy as you two are now." Nabiki leaned against her sister, who put an arm around her. "I'm so very happy I found you again. I thought you were gone forever." With some surprise she found she was crying again. Kasumi hugged her for a long time while the tears slowly ran down her cheek. Eventually they began talking in the intimate way two close sisters do, going over all the things that had happened on both sides during the last three years.

At one point Kasumi studied her sibling for a moment, then asked, "Has there been anyone in your life, sister? You haven't mentioned a boyfriend, or even any dating." A smile crossed her face. "Or a girlfriend." Nabiki flushed a little.

"No, nothing like that. I like boys." She looked back at her sister. "Not that there's anything wrong with liking girls, but it's not me." Sighing, she added, "I haven't really had time for romance. I've been on a few one-off dates with various people, but nothing that would lead further. The situation at home, work at university, you know. I just don't seem to have much time for personal relationships." Kasumi put her hand on her sister's knee.

"You should make time. You need companionship, I think."

"Perhaps." Nabiki looked away. "How am I going to find anyone who could understand the sheer insanity of my life?" With a nervous giggle, she looked back. "It's nothing as mad as yours, true enough, but compared to most people it's pretty strange. Akane, Genma, the martial arts, all that stuff. Even just living in Nerima is enough to scare off some people when they hear about it. The place has something of a reputation, you know. There's that whole guilt by association thing going on." Kasumi nodded understandingly.

"I know what you mean. Minato has it even worse, it gets reported more widely. Mention you live here to someone from almost anywhere in Japan, and certainly anywhere in Tokyo, you get some very funny looks." She laughed lightly. "It would be a lot more irritating if we weren't part of the weird side. In our case it's mainly amusing."

Nabiki snickered. "I can see that."

"What about Akane? Has she found any romantic possibilities?" Nabiki shook her head with a heavy sigh.

"You know better than that. She's completely hung up on Ranma, for a start, even after all this time. Leaving that aside, I really think she hasn't got more than a child's understanding of love and romance, never mind anything at all to do with sex. The whole concept is something we've all learned to avoid mentioning, it invariably sets her off in a rant about perverts. I don't know why but I think her emotional and sexual development stalled at about thirteen or fourteen." Falling silent for some seconds, she hesitantly added, "I also kind of think that she _might_ like girls." Kasumi looked interested but not surprised.

"As you said, there's nothing wrong with that."

"I know it, and you know it, but I don't think she can accept it. Either that homosexuality isn't wrong in the first place, or that she herself might have feelings along those lines. I have a suspicion that's why she reacted so negatively to Ranma and his curse. I always got mixed messages from her, she clearly found him attractive in both forms when her guard was down, but as soon as she realised what was happening she instantly got all defensive, then angry. Particularly when he was female."

Her sister nodded thoughtfully. "It's possible. Ranma has made similar observations. I know I'm not attracted to women in general, but I have no real preference to my husband being male or female at any given moment. It's the Ranma inside I love. What he or she looks like on the outside is irrelevant. But it's certainly true that some people would have a lot of difficulty with that. If Akane is a repressed lesbian, or merely bisexual, it would go some way to explaining some of her past behaviour." She looked sad. "Poor Akane. It must be very lonely inside her head." The sat quietly for a while occupied with their own thoughts on the matter before changing the subject.

By the time 'Yori' came back several hours later, this time entering from the practice room after presumably landing on the roof from the adjoining building, the sisters were laughing together, looking through a photo album that Kasumi had retrieved from the study, which contained pictures of their childhood. Dropping the illusion and changing back to male, Ranma looked at them with affection before going to make some tea.

Sitting down with them and handing out cups of tea, he sighed in relief. "I needed this."

"Did you have any trouble?" Kasumi asked.

"No. not really, it was just tedious." Putting his cup down he stretched a little, then leaned back comfortably. "I took the van back fine, handed over the keys, and even got a small refund since Uthryyl had rented it for another week." Nabiki looked inquisitive, the comment reminding her of something that had been bothering her.

"How could someone who looks like they did just walk into a vehicle rental place and rent a van?" she asked curiously. "Even in Minato? Or possibly, especially in Minato, seeing as it apparently has a demon problem. Even in Furinkan they would have stood out a bit." Ranma laughed.

"True, although I suspect that while people would have looked twice no one would have said anything back in Furinkan, or most of the rest of Nerima. Bearing in mind the number of people with, um, non-standard features, that we came across they're more or less used to it. Around here, though, you're both right and wrong. Yes, there are quite a lot of not particularly human visitors, some of which are ones you don't really want visiting. But on the other hand, quite a few of them are completely fine, and even profitable. There are a fair number of people that are well aware of this and are quite happy to provide services to those visitors, since they normally pay well and on time." Picking up his cup he drained it then poured himself some more. "Uthryyl is pretty cautious. He has a spell that disguises them from people who might be hostile. It's not as effective as our illusion spell by a long shot but it works pretty well. It's quite surprising how many people can see through it, as a result of being OK with them."

"I didn't notice anything at the warehouse." He nodded.

"Because you weren't hostile, and were fine with the concept. If you'd come across them without prior warning it might have made them look like normal humans, it might not. You're pretty open-minded after all. Akane would probably always see them as human unless the spell was deactivated, though. She's a lot less tolerant of things she doesn't understand or expect."

With a sad sigh Nabiki agreed. "It wasn't always like that."

"I know. I wish things hadn't deteriorated so much." All three of them fell silent, reflecting on the youngest Tendo female. "So, I took the van back, then went and spoke to the contractors. They came to the warehouse to measure up and give me a quote, but I had to wait for a couple of hours. Although they're pretty busy at the moment they've fitted the job in for about three days time, and think it should take about two days. The material costs are the killer, almost all the stuff that fell in is too damaged to be reused." He looked very annoyed about this. "After that, I went to the police station and gave Sergeant Harada a report on last night, got the details of the owners of the car and the building that were damaged, then talked to the insurance companies. One of them is fine, the car insurer was more problematic. It took a certain amount of persuading to make them see their way clear to doing the right thing." He grinned toothily. Nabiki laughed.

"So you put the fear of god into them?"

"No, better, I put the fear of _me_ into them. Or at least Yori. They caved in the end." Snickering, Nabiki wished she'd seen all this. It sounded interesting.

Ranma seemed to think of something. "Oh, yes, while I remember." Pulling something from his ki pocket he quickly scribbled Nabiki's name on one half of it, then folded it along a perforated line and tore off the other half, giving it to her. She found herself holding something that looked like a business card, which had both a telephone number and an email address neatly printed on it, above two strings of apparently random digits. At the top was one word, the name 'Yori'. She looked at it curiously as her fingers tingled for a moment, then laughed.

"Yori has business cards?" He grinned.

"Of course! How else can people who need her get hold of her?" Shaking her head with amusement, she pointed at the random assortment of letters and numbers.

"What's this for?"

"It's a password. Two, actually. Each card has different ones, they identify who I've given it to. Quote that in any email or when leaving a message and I'll know it's genuine. Use the top one normally. If for any reason you somehow get forced to use it, use the second one. That indicates you're under duress."

"Ah. A flaw in your plan. What happens if someone steals it or I give it to them?" He looked smug.

"Try it." Kasumi held out her hand with a small smile of her own. Puzzled, Nabiki handed her the card, watching in amazement as the writing on it immediately disappeared. When she accepted it back the writing reappeared.

"Wow. That's incredible." She suddenly laughed, making him look puzzled. "And you say you're not a magical girl. You even have magical business cards!" He looked annoyed, but then reluctantly smiled.

"One point to you." Pleased, she gave him a thumbs up. "It's a spell cast by a mage I helped out a while ago. Apparently something like it is used quite a lot in high-end magical documents. Even some governments use it, the ones that acknowledge the existence of magic anyway. Like ours. It's not completely unbeatable, but you have to be VERY good to trick it." The brunette produced a puzzled expression.

"But, all I have to do is hold it up to someone without letting them touch it, surely?"

He grinned. "No, that doesn't work either. The spell also works in a similar way to the disguise spell from the bracelets. Only the person holding it can read it, anyone else sees a blank card, as do cameras."

"Hmm." Impressive as it was, Nabiki was sure there was a way to beat it. It was more from the mental challenge than anything else. "OK. I memorise the password, then tell someone." She looked pleased. Ranma shook his head with an infuriating smirk.

"You can't."

"Of course I can." She stared at the card for a moment, committing the twenty characters to memory. Turning to him, she opened her mouth, then stopped. For some reason, the string of characters was suddenly absent from her mind although it had been there seconds ago. "Shit."

"Like I said, it's a really good spell. If your intent is to tell someone else, even read it to them, it kind of scrambles itself in your mind. You can memorise it, just not tell anyone what you've memorised." Looking at the card with considerable respect and a certain amount of wariness, she studied it.

"That seems like a hell of a lot of effort to go to for a business card. Isn't a spell like that very difficult to work?"

"Oh, it's not easy, definitely. Not many magic users even know how to do it, never mind have the finesse to actually make it work. I printed up a fair number of the cards and he put the spell on them in bulk. It doesn't need to be done to each one individually, that would be ridiculously difficult. Kasumi has some as well, we each have enough for several different personae. The tear off bit," he held up the half with her name on it, which she could see also had the same passwords on, "is my record of who has each one."

Putting it in her pocket, she grinned at him. "You have the most elaborate security of anyone I've ever met."

"Thank you." Drinking some tea, he put the cup down again. "To be fair, this was Happosai's idea. He has some very good ones."

"So where is the little pervert at the moment?" Ranma shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine. He drops in from time to time, often without any warning, but not much at the moment. I don't know what he's up to right now. Last time he came by was just before our wedding. He'd been visiting some friends in one of the demon worlds for a while." Nabiki's eyes widened. "Then I think he was off to annoy the females of Brazil for a while, but after that? No idea."

They talked for a while, then Kasumi went to make some lunch. Nabiki looked at her watch and checked her timetable, deciding that she'd leave at about four, which would let her catch the train from Suginami central station to Furinkan. The helpful offer of teleporting there would cut a considerable amount of effort out. Smiling to herself at the thought that she lived in a world where people could casually offer to teleport you at all, she shook her head. "This is _so_ weird."

Ranma watched her, amused by her muttering. "You get used to it, I promise."

"Easy for you to say. Your entire life has been one weird thing after another. Up until about five years ago mine was relatively sane." The middle sister gave him an arch look. "In fact, I seem to remember that it was your arrival that made everything start to go absurd." The martial artist smirked a little.

"You're entirely welcome."

"_You're_ an idiot." They grinned at each other. "I'm going to miss this. The last day or so has been more fun than I've had in a long time. Despite my crazy sister and her roof-hopping."

"Keep in touch. We've got your cellphone number, you have my special one. Kas will give you hers as well. It's off a lot of the time, but you can always leave a message, I check mine regularly. If it's on I'll answer. I promise if you need anything I'll help you out."

Nabiki moved to the dining table as Kasumi came out of the kitchen. "This is all so much trouble just to avoid half a dozen or so people." Helping his wife with the food, Ranma smiled unhappily.

"I know. Hopefully one day we can relax it a bit. But until then, this is the best way."

After lunch, she helped her sister clean up, then walked around the living room looking at the various prints and pictures. Stopping by the balcony doors, she stared out at the university for a while. Ranma and Kasumi sat next to each other on the sofa and watched her, his arm around his wife's shoulders. "You can come back, you know, sister," Kasumi said, amused at the way her younger sibling seemed to be trying to lock every detail of the apartment in her memory. Nabiki turned and smiled at her.

"I know. I will. But I doubt it will be very often for a while at least, the situation at home is too fragile to risk someone finding out." Moving to sit beside them she held her sister's hand for a moment, squeezing it. "I missed you for so long, now that I've found you again I don't want to leave." Kasumi smiled gently at the younger woman.

"I understand. Perhaps we can visit you at some point, maybe at the university? We can disguise ourselves well enough now that there's not too much risk." She glanced at her husband, who nodded.

"That's certainly possible. Appearing as ourselves anywhere outside this building isn't a good idea for the foreseeable future, but Maiko and Rika do go outside Minato occasionally. As do Yori and Chou, and several other people you haven't met yet." He snickered. "We're a two-person multiple personality disorder. We could even come up with some new ones just for you!" Nabiki laughed.

"Just leave Zythra'a at home, please. I think she'd cause more than a little confusion at the university dorms, even if she was just visiting." The martial artist laughed delightedly at the thought.

"Oh, all right," he replied in mock-disappointment.

Kasumi gave her a similar card to the Yori one, this one having the name 'Chou' on it. After some thought, and a brief discussion with Ranma, she also wrote down her 'Rika' cell number. "I have this one with me when I'm at university. It should be safe enough letting you have it, lots of people do. Please be sure to use the right name when you talk to me on it though." Nabiki giggled.

"I have to keep track of so many names with you two. I feel like I've met dozens of people in the last day, but most of them are you or Ranma! How on earth do you keep it all straight?"

"It isn't easy, but practice helps," her sister giggled back. They hugged, then Nabiki stood.

"Well, I guess I'm ready to go." Ranma nodded, pulling out a phone and turning it on.

"I'll call Aiko." After a short conversation and a moment's concentration, he lowered the wards and a flash came from the direction of the practice room. A few seconds later Aiko walked into the living room.

"Hi, guys. Ready to go, Nabiki?" The brunette walked over to her, but turned when Ranma called. He handed her the disguise bracelet again.

"Here. Use this, so no one can identify you when you arrive. You can go somewhere private with Aiko at the station and give it back to her, if that's all right." Once again impressed at the thoroughness of his security precautions Nabiki took the bracelet from him and slipped it around her wrist.

"Thanks." She impulsively hugged him and after a moment's surprise he returned it.

"Take care, Nabs."

"Don't call me Nabs." She grinned at him. Kasumi got up and hugged her again as well. Releasing her sister, she inspected them both, then smiled. "I'll be back. Take care, you two." Quickly turning so they wouldn't see the tears in her eyes she nodded to Aiko. The magical girl smiled at her understandingly, handed Kasumi the bag containing the returned borrowed clothes, then led her into the practice room. A bright flash reflected down the hallway and they were gone.

In the living room, Ranma stood with his arms around his wife, who was also crying a little.


	14. Chapter 14

On the train back to Nerima Nabiki reflected on the last thirty hours or so. It had been worrying, fun, terrifying, hilarious, frustrating, inspiring, vomit-inducing, and overall something she was extremely glad she'd experienced. Everything had started with a suspicion derived from police reports and media coverage. What she'd found was so far beyond what she'd expected or even hoped for she was still trying to come to terms with it. The most important thing by far was that she'd found her sister, after all this time. And her sister's husband. It was just a pity she couldn't tell anybody.

'_My brother in law,_' she thought with a private smile. '_I kind of expected that one day, but not from that direction. Good for you, Kasumi._' Staring out the window as the familiar sights of south Nerima slipped by, she pondered what it all meant. Ranma had indeed given her a cheque for the amount she'd mentioned he still owed her, which made her smile. During their long talk, Kasumi had passed on the access details and card for an account with a considerable sum in it. It turned out that they had several such accounts with fairly anonymous names attached for emergencies. Looking at the debit card with interest she ran her thumb over the embossed numbers then put it back in her wallet.

As she'd told Kasumi, she was very hesitant about bringing a sudden windfall into the Tendo household at the moment for several reasons, the most important of which was upsetting the status quo. Leaving aside Akane's growing mental problems, to which she still hoped to find a solution, things were slowly improving. A sudden influx of liquidity could well undo all the good that time had rather unexpectedly produced. At least, in the case of a genuine emergency, the resources were there. '_Therapy. That's certainly an idea. I wonder if I could persuade Akane to talk to a therapist of some sort? That would be a good use of the money. If Ranma of all people can benefit from it, perhaps my __nutty__ sister could._' With a slight shrug she got up as the train slowed. It was something to consider.

Walking back to the Dojo, still thinking about the whole affair, she unexpectedly found herself entering total chaos. The cause of it was quickly identified when she heard the grating laughter. "Oh, damn it, why now, Kodachi," she groaned, watching as the crazed gymnast bounced around the yard chased by the equally crazed figure of her younger sister, who was practically frothing at the mouth from fury.

"Get back here you stupid cow!" Akane screamed, swinging a huge mallet wildly at the other woman, who skipped out of the way with little effort.

"You're still a graceless peasant, Tendo," the black-haired woman taunted, emitting yet another nerve-jangling laugh. Nabiki winced at the sound. With a sigh, she turned to enter the house, cringing at the noise of a missed mallet strike punching a large hole in the garden wall. Inside, She found Nodoka in the kitchen cleaning the sink, every now and then sighing to herself. The auburn-haired older woman looked up as she came in.

"Hello, Nabiki. Did you have a nice time with your friend?"

"Yes, Auntie, it was wonderful to see her again. And her partner." Nodoka looked at her suspiciously.

"Partner? Business, or..." Nabiki laughed. The older woman's expression was amusing.

"Not business. More like life, I guess."

"I see." Nodoka's expression was somewhat disapproving. She turned back to her task. "I can't say I think such things are very appropriate."

"Oh, Auntie, '_such things_' are fine. They're a lovely couple and love each other more than almost anyone I have ever met." Nodoka's expression softened slightly.

"What do they do?" she asked.

"They're both studying different fields of medicine. Eventually they'll be doctors." The older woman looked approving.

"That's a very good career choice." She sighed a little. "It probably makes their mothers very proud. Everyone wants their children to do well." She seemed wistful, Nabiki having a fairly good idea who she was thinking about. Putting her hand on the other woman's shoulder for a moment, she smiled reassuringly, then changed the subject.

"What's all the excitement outside about?" Nodoka's expression changed to one of irritation.

"Oh, that annoying Kodachi Kuno dropped in on us about half an hour ago, ranting about the usual things. Where had we hidden her darling Ranma, shouting about the red-haired harridan, you know the routine. She must be bored, she hasn't done anything like this for a long time. Akane immediately lost her temper and attacked her, which only made the whole situation worse. My blasted husband and your father didn't help, they had their students watching and taking notes, _and_ bets. That really made Akane angry, I'm afraid, as Soun was betting against her. She knocked him unconscious, then did the same to Genma when he laughed. Their students tried to defend them but simply aren't good enough yet, so they all ended up in the pond as well." She paused, looking reflectively out the window. "It's very odd how all the fights around this place seem to end up there. I wonder why?" After a moment, she gave up trying to work it out.

"That was about ten minutes before you arrived. Akane and Kodachi have been chasing each other around the grounds ever since. With a little luck they'll wear themselves out and stop soon." Both women winced as a loud crash shook the room. "Hopefully before the house collapses." Another crash came making the cups in the cupboards tinkle against each other.

"For fuck's sake, this is ridiculous," Nabiki snarled in anger, ignoring Nodoka's expression at her swearing. Stomping outside she shouted at the top of her voice, "_**KNOCK IT OFF YOU MORONS!**_" Kodachi and Akane both stopped dead, staring at her. Ruthlessly suppressing the sudden urge to giggle as the memory of 'Yori' yelling at a similarly shocked group of magical girls came to her, she glared at them both. Trying for the same note of command in her voice, she continued, "Kodachi, go home before I charge you for the damage. No, on second thought, I _am_ going to charge you. I'll send an invoice. Now push off and find something else to amuse yourself with." Dismissing the woman with a glance, she was grinning on the inside at the expression of haughty irritation combined with uncertainty that crossed her face.

"Akane, _please_ stop letting her tease you. _Look_ at this place!" She waved her hand at the damage. A tile slid off the roof and shattered on the flagstones, making both of the fighters twitch. Nabiki successfully managed to ignore it. "Your job doesn't pay enough to allow you to indulge in this sort of thing, and _I'm_ certainly not going to fund your little rants. Not any more. You've already knocked out father, Genma, and all their students. What happens if the students decide to give up because of that? Did you think about _that?_" Shame passing over her face, Akane shook her head, staring at the ground. She jumped as another tile shattered.

"Try to be more sensible. We can't afford to have you wreck the damn place every time you get pissed off. _Grow up!_ You're nearly twenty two years old, you're not a child any more." Shaking her head in disgust, she added, "You can clear this up. When you're done I'll work out how much your share of the damage comes to." Akane looked at her in shock, starting to speak. "_**No.**_ I'm serious. Now start cleaning," Nabiki snapped, causing her to close her mouth and slump. Turning her head to stare at the Kuno woman, Nabiki asked sarcastically, "Are _you_ still here? In that case, you can help her clean up." She reached inside the door and grabbed the broom, tossing it to Kodachi, who caught it in a sort of dazed reflex. The two fighters looked at her, then at each other, before mechanically beginning to clean up the mess, without saying anything. She watched with her hands on her hips for a minute or two before nodding, satisfied. '_Thank you, Yori. I learned a lot._' She smiled coldly at them then went back into the house.

Nodoka stared at her with mixed surprise and approval. "That was... impressive. How did you learn to do that?"

With a satisfied grin Nabiki responded, "My friend's partner is, well, very forceful when she wants to be, especially with troublemakers. People listen to her whether they want to or not. I saw her dealing with some overenthusiastic people last night and thought her method might work here. I'm glad to say it did."

"Well done." The older woman smiled at the younger one, clearly pleased.

"Thanks. I suppose I'd better go and check on father and the other idiots." Nodoka tutted at her comment but looked amused. Going out into the Dojo, the middle sister looked around with irritation. There were several new holes in the walls and a couple in the floor, evidence that Akane had been making free use of her mallet. She made some notes on the extent of the damage, then went to look for the human casualties. Soun was lying on the grass next to the pond, mumbling to himself, while Genma, currently a panda, was floating on his back in it, blinking at the sky and looking as puzzled as a panda can. The five students were arrayed around the water, groaning and soaked. Nabiki stood and studied them with a disgusted expression.

"You lot are useless. Seven of you, two very experienced martial artists and five pretty decent students, and you couldn't handle one irritated Akane?"

Genma held up a sign that read, **#She's ****i****nsanely strong, you know#**.

"That's no excuse. Next time, try harder. Or I'll start billing _you_ lot for the damage as well." Snorting with derision, she turned and left, inwardly very relieved that there didn't appear to be any serious injuries. '_This time. What happens next time?_' Despite what she'd said she knew full well that it was next to impossible to stop Akane when she was enraged. They'd done well to even slow her down. Returning to the yard she watched Kodachi and Akane still clearing up their mess, slightly surprised they both hadn't run for it the moment she turned her back. '_Wow. Yori's technique of yell a lot and not take no for an answer really works._' She resolved to try to keep on top of her sister from now on, if one good talking to worked so well. The fact that Kodachi of all people had also been intimidated enough to do manual labour was astounding. '_I'll have to let Ranma and Kasumi know about this. It'll amuse them if nothing else._'

The brunette went into the house and up to her room, where she turned on the computer and waited for it to boot, idly spinning her chair around and looking out the window. When the familiar desktop came up she typed in her password, then spent the next hour carefully deleting every report, email, and media file she had gathered during her search for the two missing people. Going over the computer one last time very deliberately, in case she'd missed anything, she then pulled out her backup disks and reformatted them all twice, just to be sure. Starting a new backup going to save the current state of the rest of her data, she rummaged around in her desk and closet to find any printouts that might have potentially incriminating evidence on them, then shredded them. She'd burn the remains later.

It went against her normal practice, but she felt it was best to make sure that there was no chance that anyone else could use her research to find the pair. Not only was she worried about them should that happen, she'd been quite serious about her comments on the possible repercussions to Akane and the rest. Finally satisfied that every scrap of data that had led her to her quarry was permanently gone, she then spent some time researching therapists who had experience dealing with anger management issues. This took another couple of hours, but she ended up with a short-list of five names she resolved to call the next day.

Turning off the computer she rose and looked out the window. Akane and Kodachi were still working, although it looked like they were nearly done. Smiling with considerable amusement she went downstairs and watched from the porch as they finished up. "Well done. Right, I'll get estimates for the damage and get you both bills for your share. Akane, you have two months to pay. Kodachi, I expect payment by the end of the week or you will have a major problem. Do you both understand me?" The two young women glanced at each other, then nodded, uncharacteristically quiet. "Good. In future, if you want to play, go and do it in one of the vacant lots where no one will mind. There's a lot of them around here. If you start anything in the grounds of the Dojo, there is going to be serious trouble. _**AM I CLEAR?**_" She snapped the last three words with the volume and command of a good sergeant-major, making them jump. Again, they nodded.

"Good. Kodachi, go home. Akane, go inside. Dinner is nearly ready." Turning on her heel she walked back into the house, grinning at Nodoka who had come out of the kitchen to listen with a peculiar smile on her face. The older woman nodded respectfully to her.

"If you wish, you can borrow my katana if you have to do this again. I always found it made people... more respectful." The older woman grinned quickly, then went back to an almost Kasumi-like smile.

Surprised, Nabiki considered the offer for a moment. "Thank you. Hopefully it won't be necessary but it's nice to know the option is there." Nodoka gave her another surprisingly respectful and slightly curious look before going back to the kitchen. She got the distinct impression that she'd scored some serious points with Ranma's mother. Behind her she heard the sound of Akane entering the house. Turning she looked at the younger woman, who glanced at her then away, still looking ashamed.

"I'm sorry Nabiki. She makes me so angry, though. Why did she have to come here?" The young woman sounded simultaneously plaintive and petulant. Nabiki sighed. While she had some sympathy for her sister the fact remained that Akane over-reacted enormously to even the slightest insult.

"I know how irritating Kodachi is. But that doesn't excuse you knocking huge great holes in the house and the Dojo. It's going to cost a lot of money to get them repaired. Father and Genma can't use the Dojo for teaching until the floor is fixed, so that's less money coming in right when we need it. Never mind any potential loss of students." She studied her sister, who was fidgeting like a ten year old called in front of her mother. Suddenly getting an inkling of how Kasumi must have felt all those years she felt ashamed. "You must control yourself better. You've been doing quite well the last few months, don't let Kodachi ruin it, OK?" Akane nodded slowly, still not meeting her sister's eyes. "And if you really have to fight her, _please_ do it somewhere else? Somewhere you won't damage anything important?" Once more the blue-haired girl nodded.

"I'm sorry, 'Biki." The diminutive form of her name made Nabiki smile, Akane hadn't used it in years. Stepping forward she closed the gap between them and hugged her embarrassed sister. "I forgive you. But you're still paying for your share of the damage." With a final nod, Akane hugged her back, before going off to the bathroom to clean up.

At the dinner table, Nabiki ate slowly, looking around at the various people in the room. Nodoka was in an oddly pleasant mood, occasionally giving her interested looks. Genma was currently human and still looked slightly stunned, while her father was concentrating on eating and seemed to be using what attention he had left to think about something. Akane was quite withdrawn, eating her food quietly and saying nothing. As the meal drew to a close, the brunette sister cleared her throat. Everyone looked at her.

"I've been giving this a lot of thought, but today's little amusement has pushed up the timetable." Looking at her father, then her sister, she went on, firmly although with sympathy, "Akane, you have a serious problem, one that seems to steadily be getting worse. This latest episode could have been very bad, and I'm terrified that the next one will be worse. You get too angry, too easily." Pausing she tried to gauge her sister's mood, which seemed to be more apathetic than angry. Delicately, she added, "I think we need to serious consider getting you some professional help for your anger control problem, before something permanent happens." Her sister sat still for a moment as her words registered, then looked at her with a mix of anger and sorrow.

"I'm not crazy." Nabiki shook her head.

"I'm not suggesting you are," she replied, while thinking, '_Not out loud, anyway. But you're heading that way._' "But even you must admit that you get angry extremely easily, and express that anger in a very destructive manner." The blue haired girl opened her mouth with a nasty retort ready, then to Nabiki's considerable surprise, stopped and thought. '_That's a first,_' she thought in wonder. After several seconds, Akane tried again.

"Some people really get on my nerves," she said quietly. "They make me furious, I just boil over." Her sister nodded.

"And then you try to hit them. Luckily, so far most of the people you have managed to hit are the rare ones that can take it. But what happens when you go after an ordinary, non martial artist person. Someone just walking down the street, for instance? Or one of your friends, like Sayuri? Or me? You do realise, I hope, that the sort of damage you just caused to either of them," she waved a hand at the two fathers, who were listening intently, "would kill almost anyone else with a single hit? What you did to Ryoga would have pulped any normal person. What you used to do to Ranma would have killed any lesser mortal dozens of times over." She stopped again as Akane's eyes flashed at the mention of the martial artist, wondering if she'd made a mistake. Hoping not, she went on, pressing her advantage while Akane was in this unusually receptive mood.

"There have been so many times you could have, with one thoughtless action, become a murderer. Do you want that? I certainly don't. Your honour, the family honour, would never recover. But more importantly, I don't want my little sister to have that on her conscience." Her sudden rage subsiding, the younger woman sat back, mollified by her sibling's obvious and genuine concern.

"It's all Ranma's fault," Akane muttered half-heartedly, resorting to the tired old formula. Nabiki stared at her incredulously.

"How? How could it _possibly_ be Ranma's fault? He's been gone for over three years, Akane. Face it, you will most likely never see him again, and if you're honest with yourself you know why. You weren't the only reason he left, we all share that shame, but you were one of the biggest reasons and the trigger. _You nearly killed Kasumi! _If it hadn't been for Ranma you would have succeeded. _That's_ what I'm afraid of. If you could try to hit _**Kasumi**_ of all people with your full strength, without even thinking about the results, it's only a matter of time before you do it again to someone else, and this time there _won't_ be a miracle. There _will be no Ranma_ to save you from the rest of your life either in jail or on the run. That sort of luck only happens once in someone's life, and you used yours up that night."

Akane's face unexpectedly crumpled and she began crying, leaning forward and resting her head on the table narrowly missing her plate. With a sigh Nabiki moved to sit beside her, putting her arm over her back and comforting her. "Oh, 'Biki, I'm sorry. I can't help it. I try to stop myself but I just can't. If Ranma was here he could stop me. Why did he leave? Why did he take Kasumi with him? I miss her so much." Helplessly, the older Tendo woman stroked her sibling's back and looked at the three adults, who peered back with various expressions. Nodoka was both sympathetic and slightly irritated, Soun looked ready to cry himself, while Genma was watching Akane with an oddly speculative look on his face, like he'd never really seen her before. Meeting her eyes he said nothing but simply watched. Trying to silently pass on the message that if he tried anything that hurt her sister she'd gut him like a fish, she smiled slightly in satisfaction when he paled a little.

The youngest Tendo sister cried for a long time, deep heaving sobs that spoke of despair. Nodoka and Soun cleared the table, sparing the two young women concerned glances, as Genma stepped out of the way and continued to watch quietly. After twenty minutes or so he nodded to himself and left the room. Watching him go, Nabiki wondered to herself what he was up to. Still holding her sister she waited for her anguish to subside. When she eventually stopped crying and lifted her head her eyes were red and bloodshot. The older sister hander her a cloth to wipe her eyes with. "Are you all right?" she asked with sympathy.

"No. Not really." Her sister looked at her with raw honesty in her eyes, for perhaps the first time in years. "I'm sorry. It was just too much. Kodachi, then Father and Genma, then you."

"I didn't mean to upset you, sis. But it needed to be said." Akane nodded slowly, still looking upset.

"OK. What do you want me to do," she asked quietly and unusually passively. Her sister looked at her with an evaluating stare.

"I think, as I said, that we need to get you to see someone who can help you, before this goes too far. If you carry on like this, someone is going to get badly hurt, and it could just as easily be you in the long run. If I find a suitable therapist, will you go? Please?" The blue-haired woman watched her face for long seconds, then stared at the table, wiping one eye with the back of her hand.

"Yes." The response was so quiet Nabiki could barely hear it.

"Thank you." Akane looked briefly at her, a hint of a smile crossing her face for a moment, before it reverted to unhappiness again.

"Do you think I'm crazy, Nabiki?" The older woman shook her head.

"No, I don't, not really. But I think you're heading into a very dark place, unless we do something before it's too late. I should have insisted on this a long time ago, and I'm sorry that I've let it get to this point." Her sister nodded absently.

"I miss her."

"So do I," the middle sister said, feeling very guilty. The urge to blurt out their eldest sister's whereabouts was almost overwhelming, but she ruthlessly shoved it down in the certain knowledge that it would not only betray a promise but without doubt make a bad situation far worse. Akane nodded again.

"Every day, I get up, expecting her to call me for breakfast. Every day, I go to bed wanting to say goodnight to her. It's horrible. I feel so guilty. _I nearly killed her, Nabiki!_" Her voice suddenly rose, animation coming back into her features for the first time since she'd started crying. "I didn't even think, I just pulled out a mallet and swung at her. It wasn't until after I'd started the swing that I even saw who I was trying to hit, and by then it was too late." She was trembling, whether in fear, anguish, guilt, or a combination of all three Nabiki couldn't determine. "I nearly killed my sister," she said quietly. Putting her head back on the table she sighed. "I'm a terrible martial artist, a terrible person. Everyone is better than me. All I can do is smash things. Even Kodachi is better than me."

Her elder sibling watched her sadly. "It's not a contest, Akane. You have the makings of a good martial artist, by most standards a very good one, but you have to face up the fact that there will be people who are better. Don't try to judge yourself by the standards of Ranma, for example. He's in a class of his own, so far beyond anyone else it's almost silly. But he paid a very heavy price to become that good, one he never even knew he was paying until it was too late." The younger woman looked at her for a moment, then nodded.

"I know. When I think about it like that, I know. But it was so difficult seeing him do things without even trying that most people never be capable of. And all the others. They're all incredibly good as well compared to me. It makes me feel... small and worthless." Her brutally honest self-criticism made her sister both sad, and feel that it was about time she faced some of her inner issues. Perhaps there was hope for her yet. If only she would stick to her promise of therapy when she cheered up. Feeling a little guilty for pushing when she was obviously on the verge of a breakdown but knowing it might be the only chance they'd get, Nabiki spoke again.

"You have to talk to someone about all this, as honestly as you're talking to me now. About everything. What you did to Ranma, why he left, what you nearly did to Kasumi and why she chose to go with him as a result. Why you're so angry all the time, lashing out at people for the smallest things. It's not healthy for you, and it sure as hell isn't healthy for anyone else." Akane smiled briefly.

"It wasn't for Ryoga." With a chuckle, Nabiki grinned at her.

"Well, to be honest that one was almost justified. I'm glad you didn't succeed in killing him, for your sake rather than his, but I'm _not_ sorry you beat the crap out of him. He'd done some very underhanded things to you and to Ranma for years. You know poor old Ranma tried very hard to let you know about Ryoga's curse, but couldn't tell you straight because he'd promised the pig he wouldn't reveal a weakness?" She could see from the shocked expression that her sister had never considered this. "Every time you hit him for 'teasing' or 'bullying' P-Chan, he was trying to protect your honour, but couldn't because his own got in the way." She shook her head. "Poor bastard."

Fresh tears welled up in her sister's eyes and for a moment she wondered if she'd gone too far. "Don't cry, Akane. It's in the past and we can't change it. What's done is done. We just have to get you fixed up somehow so nothing like this ever happens again. OK?" The younger woman looked at her with teary eyes and nodded, unable to say anything. Debating with herself for several seconds, Nabiki finally decided that she had to say the last thing that needed saying.

"I've also decided that I'm not going to look for Ranma and Kasumi any more." Shock once more filled her sister's eyes, but she carried on, not letting her speak, "It's not doing us any favours. We've been treading water, trying to turn back the clock, for more than three years now. If I haven't found them by now I never will unless they want to be found, which they obviously don't." '_All too true, but I can't tell you that. I'm sorry, Akane._' "Aside from the cost, it's causing you a lot of harm, I think. You have to face the fact that they're gone, quite possibly permanently. You have to move on with you life, as do the rest of us." '_And I feel like a total bastard saying that, knowing what I do. But at the moment it's for the best._' Gently, she put her hand on Akane's. "With luck, one day they might come back to us. But it will be on their terms. Do you understand?"

The young woman searched her face with her eyes, seeking the truth of what she'd said. Hoping desperately that her inner thoughts weren't visible from the outside Nabiki schooled her expression into a cool but sympathetic one. After several long seconds Akane dropped her eyes. "Yes. I understand." Eventually, she stood and walked to the doorway, stopping and speaking without turning, "I'm sorry I disappointed you, 'Biki." Leaving the room she went up the stairs and a moment later her sister heard the door to her bedroom close softly.

"Oh, Akane," Nabiki sighed, shaking her head sadly. Hearing a noise at the door to the kitchen she looked up to meet Nodoka's eyes.

"You did well, my dear. That can't have been easy." The middle sister looked at her for a moment before slumping back into her seat.

"Not easy at all. Very hard indeed, would be a better way of putting it." The elder woman walked over and sat down facing her.

"I think it was something that was long overdue. That poor girl is a tortured soul in some ways, she needs help. I don't think any of us here are able to give her what she needs. Perhaps an outsider can." Looking curiously at the other woman, she asked, "Are you really giving up on your search for Kasumi and... my son?" She stumbled a little on the last few words. Nabiki nodded.

"Yes. As I told my sister, it's not doing anything useful and in fact causing quite a lot of harm. Not to mention costing a fortune, even with hijacking the Kuno idiots' investigators." Nodoka smiled slightly at this, then looked serious again, as well as a little depressed.

"That's a pity, but I can see your point." She sighed a little. "I would like to see him again one day. I know Genma would as well, he misses the boy even if he doesn't show it." Nabiki looked at her with mildly annoyed interest.

"Your husband is a very large part of why he left." To her surprise the other woman didn't take offence, merely nodding with another small sigh.

"Oh, I know. It may have been your poor sister who triggered the whole thing that terrible night, but we all bear various proportions of the blame. It's a stain on my honour I will take to the grave." They sat in silence for a while, Nabiki reflecting on the older woman's words. There was a surprising amount of self-realisation in them considering the source. She had always considered Ranma's mother to be too full of her own rigid ideas about '_manly_' behaviour to ever think that she played some part in what happened, but apparently over the last few years she had come to understand the consequences of her actions to some degree at least.

Whether that would stick if Ranma ever did come back was unknowable until and unless it happened, of course. She didn't think it likely that it would, at least in the short term. Her conversation at their apartment had made it clear that the martial artists still harboured strong feelings over the matter, which she couldn't blame him for. She felt considerable shame for her own part in the entire affair. It had surprised her quite a lot that not once had either he or Kasumi mentioned that in anything other than passing, with no malice. In her own opinion she didn't deserve such fair treatment.

Eventually Nodoka broke the silence. "Isn't therapy expensive?"

Looking up from her thoughts Nabiki replied, "It should be covered by our health insurance, as it's clearly an urgent problem. We'll have to pay a certain amount, but I have some emergency money that should cover it. The biggest problem is going to be finding a therapist who can understand the nature of the problem, _and_ the potential danger. I've looked up some names, I'll make some phone calls tomorrow. Hopefully someone can see her fairly soon."

Nodoka stood, then smiled. "You seem to have taken on the role that Kasumi filled very well, Nabiki. I hope that Akane can be helped." A few seconds later the middle sister was alone with her thoughts.


	15. Chapter 15

Shampoo sat next to Cologne in the closed restaurant, sighing with relief that the evening rush was now finished. Business was going very well, but by the same token she was working very hard. The three extra waitresses they'd taken on in the last year helped hugely but she couldn't help thinking back to when Ranma had filled that role for a few weeks so long ago. She had been unmatched at the job. These girls were extremely good but not in the red-head's class. '_No one is_,' she thought to herself wistfully. '_I hope he's all right._' Once more she sighed, for different reasons.

Cologne was watching her sympathetically. "It's been a long day. You and the girls did very well, even the boy worked hard. I just wish he'd wear his damn glasses all the time, it gets embarrassing when he offers a discount to a pretty girl that turns out to be a fifty-year-old businessman from Kobe." They both snickered, that had been very funny. Not for Mousse, of course. He'd been walking around with a red face for more than an hour. The young woman with the long lilac hair studied her great-grandmother for a moment, then turned to look out the window.

"I don't suppose you've had any luck?" she asked casually, not needing to say more. Cologne shook her head.

"No. To be honest, I'm completely out of ideas. I've tried everything I could think of, and everything anyone else in the village could come up with as well. Nothing has worked at all. Whoever is protecting son-in-law and the Tendo girl is better than I am." She scowled, the admission was hard. "I wish I knew who that was. And how they've done it. A huge amount of effort has been put into making those two vanish, it's a bit worrying when I think about it. In some ways the most mysterious thing is how on earth he could ever have found such effective protection. I'd never have believed he knew anyone so powerful. Even Herb or Saffron wouldn't be so effective at hiding him. And I know it's neither of them. Herb might have helped, they have something approaching a friendship, but I've talked to him and he's as puzzled about it as we are. Saffron most likely wouldn't, although he's also curious." She laughed a little.

"And, I think, a little scared of the boy. Ranma gave him a real shock doing what he did. Even though I suspect it was a bit of a lucky accident in some way, the fact remains that he somehow beat one of, if not the, most powerful entities in China. Nearly killed himself in the process, of course, but he won." She shook her head in respectful wonder. "What an asset he would have been."

After a moment, she continued thoughtfully, "If it's Happosai, I badly underestimated him for a very long time indeed. I always knew he was a tricky little bastard, but the level of subtleties in play here are remarkable. As is the raw power. If it's _not_ him, I'm completely at a loss. It has to have something to do with that deviant, the timing of his disappearance is too coincidental, but..." She shrugged. "Hopefully one day it will all make sense."

"Nabiki told me a few weeks ago that she'd given up looking." Cologne nodded.

"I heard. I'm not entirely sure I believe it, she's not the type to give in easily, but what with their financial issues and all the trouble with young Akane, it's quite possibly true. It's been a long time and that one always did have a shrewd eye for practicality. She probably decided it wasn't worth the effort any more. Give her another few years, she's going to be a formidable opponent."

Shampoo turned to look at the elder. "What do you think about the situation with Akane? I also heard that she was seeing a doctor for her anger problems."

Cologne looked thoughtful. "Yes, that I _do_ believe. It's a good thing, I think. While she's always been a problem to us, I never had any personal issues with the girl. She showed considerable promise at one point. With a proper Amazon upbringing she'd have been a formidable warrior. But lacking that, she's certainly become a hazard to both herself and everyone else in the area." The old woman snickered. "I was very impressed with what she did to the pig boy. He definitely had it coming. He's one of the toughest people I've ever encountered and she beat him to a pulp. No real technique, but _damn_, she hits hard when she gets worked up." Shampoo giggled a little, she didn't often hear the old woman talk like that.

"I hope the doctor can help her. She's always been a rival, but it's a horrible thing to slowly be going insane, and to be a danger to your own family." Shampoo shivered. Remembering that horrible night so long ago, she thought about the expression on Akane's face when she realised she'd nearly killed her own flesh and blood. Cologne looked at her for a moment, thinking about the same thing.

"So do I. I wouldn't like to have to deal with her if she _did_ go berserk. To be honest, I'm not completely convinced I could, without causing permanent damage."

Nodding, Shampoo reflected on the truth of the statement. While she herself was undoubtedly a better-trained warrior than Akane was, she was honest enough to admit to herself that she was both somewhat out of practice and also outmatched by the sheer power of the girl. She'd _probably_ prevail in an all-out battle, but only by resorting to lethal methods. Overall it wasn't something she ever wanted to try if it could be avoided. Aside from anything else, she felt rather sorry for the other woman, Ranma's spectacular departure with her sister had affected her badly, even it it was mainly her fault.

Changing the subject, she asked, "Did you see the local news last night? There was another monster attack in that weird Minato place. Some horrible-looking thing with huge claws nearly killed half a dozen people, until some of those strange magical girls that run around there so much blew it up. There was some video of them attacking it, it wasn't very clear but it looked like it caused a lot of damage. The funny thing is that afterwards one of the magical girls was yelling at the ones who stopped the thing, because they caused so much damage themselves. Three buildings collapsed and more people were hurt by them than by the monster." She giggled. "The girl was furious. You should have heard what she was saying. She was only a little thing, shorter than I am, with this really black hair with a pretty blue stripe in it, but she had a mouth on her like one of the battle mistresses from the village. The others looked so embarrassed, and more scared of her than the monster. She even made them clear up the street afterwards."

Cologne laughed. "Impressive. Perhaps we should try recruiting her?" Shampoo shook her head hastily.

"I _really_ don't think that would be a good idea. From what I saw, if she ever got to the village she'd be running the place inside a month." She giggled again. "But it was very funny. Even the reporter was laughing. Apparently this Yori girl and a friend are known for keeping the others in line and they're not at all afraid to knock heads together if they think someone is being stupid, they also seem to have the power and ability to make it stick. She doesn't like being interviewed and they can't seem to get a good picture of her face, but from what the reporter was saying she's built quite a reputation in the last couple of years."

"It's about time some of those girls started taking responsibility for their actions. It's a very odd place, Minato. Not quite as odd as Nerima, true, but I went there a couple of times and there do seem to be quite a few visitors from other worlds wandering around. Most people don't seem to realise it. I'm not sure why so many demons end up there, but I'm glad its there and not here." Cologne shook her head. "I'm too old to go hunting demons." Shampoo glanced at her with a mischievous grin.

"You haven't got the legs for the costume, either." Her great-grandmother bopped her on the head with her staff while laughing.

* * *

Arriving home for the weekend, Nabiki stopped just inside the front door to take her shoes off, then sniffed. "Agh. What the hell...?" Pinching her nose she followed the revolting miasma to the kitchen where she found a coughing Nodoka scrubbing a pan under copious amounts of water in the sink, through which bubbles of reddish gas were popping. She groaned. "Let me guess. Akane snuck in and tried to cheer herself up by cooking again?" The older woman turned to nod at her, her eyes streaming.

"I'm afraid so." Taking an incautious breath the auburn-haired woman immediately regretted it, dropping the pan into the sink as she went pale green. Staggering back and pulling her rubber gloves off she leaned heavily on the kitchen table attempting to keep her lunch down. "This may be the worst one yet," she said, once she'd forced her stomach to stay on-side by sheer willpower. "My husband is being sick, your father is lying in his bed unconscious. The only saving grace is that Akane tried some herself and has been on the toilet for the last two hours." She produced a sickly grin. "I shouldn't take pleasure in it but I am quite glad she caught herself in the whole thing. I thought we'd managed to persuade her to stay out of the kitchen."

Nabiki sighed as she watched the pan gently dissolve in the now highly-coloured water in the sink. She was slightly surprised that the sink itself was still intact. Ceramic was apparently more resilient than stainless steel. "This is ridiculous. It's the third time in two months. I'm getting tired of replacing the pots and pans, it's expensive."

"It least this time nothing exploded." It was cold comfort. The smell became too much for both of them and they hastily flung open all the windows before retiring to the porch. Gasping for breath they waited for the room to clear of the appalling stench. "Your sister has an undeniable talent, but it certainly isn't as a chef. A chemical warfare expert, possibly," Nodoka quipped, leaning against the wall still looking rather green. Nabiki half-smiled, trying not to retch. She didn't often hear the older woman make jokes.

Eventually the smell died down to merely ghastly and the two women re-entered the house. The sink was full of a noxious liquid that had iridescent patterns lazily tracing their way across the surface, reflecting the sunlight from the window into oddly beautiful shapes and colours on the ceiling. Looking at it cautiously from a safe distance they waited for something else to happen. Nothing did so after a minute or so Nabiki approached the sink with a wooden spoon in her hand, the handle extended, then carefully hooked the chain to the sink plug with it. One quick yank, and... the remains of the chain pulled out of the liquid sans plug. "Damn." They looked at each other.

"Well, _I'm_ not putting my hand in there," Nodoka said forcefully. Nabiki couldn't blame her in the slightest, especially after having seen the contents of the sink eat a stainless steel pot.

'_It was one of the good ones __too__,_' she mused, irritated. '_Why the hell does she always use the __**expensive**__ cookware for her chemistry experiments?' _With a sigh she rummaged around in one of the cupboards for the heavy-duty corrosive-proof gloves she'd bought after the last such episode, pulling them on. They were very thick, came up to her elbows, and were made of a synthetic supposedly proof against almost anything. Not entirely trusting the manufacturers claims she stuck her left hand into the liquid, fumbled around for the plug and pulled it out as fast as possible, then turned on the cold tap and rinsed the glove off hastily. The surface was already starting to bubble. "I hope it doesn't eat the pipes as well," she muttered, dropping the gloves on the draining board and watching the fresh water fume and hiss as it washed the stuff away. She turned the flow up a bit.

"How the hell does she do it?" the older woman asked. "That was, apparently, meant to be fish stew. Not something from a science fiction film. I've got _no_ idea how you make something like that from the contents of a kitchen, even if you added the contents of the cleaning shelf." Nabiki shrugged helplessly.

"Not a clue. She's getting worse, as well, or possibly better if your goal is the creation of the ultimate solvent rather than dinner." With a sigh she picked up the left glove between thumb and forefinger by the cuff, inspecting it. Every part of it that had been immersed was now bleached, the surface looking rough although apparently still intact. "These at least seem to work. Once at any rate." She tossed them back into the cupboard. "I assume from all this that her latest session with the therapist didn't go as well as could be hoped?"

"No. From what I gathered the poor doctor managed to set her off on a major rant, they had to dart her again. Once the drugs wore off she had a massive headache and felt depressed. So she decided to surprise us with lunch." The auburn-haired woman chuckled mournfully. "It was a surprise, definitely. But it most certainly wasn't lunch."

"Damn. It's been four months so far. At least this doctor hasn't needed therapy of her own yet, unlike the first two." She shook her head ruefully. The youngest Tendo sister had, to be fair, stuck at going to therapy. The problem was that it didn't seem to be having much effect. Oh, certainly, the random outburst of rage in the household seemed to have died down a fair amount but she suspected that was more because she was having them in the hospital instead. '_At least they finally came up with the idea of a __dart__ gun, although it's a bit weird they had to borrow one from the zoo. And powerful enough drugs._' The first time someone had snuck up behind her when she was going off on a full-bore screaming fit with a syringe full of some sort of happy-juice was the last, all it had done was make her even angrier for a moment, then start giggling while she trashed the place. The doctor was in need of tranquillizers of her own by the time the young woman had calmed down.

The only good thing was that the medical people started taking Nabiki's warnings of how dangerous the slender young woman was more seriously after that. Seeing a fifty-five kilo female pick up a two hundred kilo steel desk that was actually bolted to the floor, without apparently even noticing the bolts snapping, and throw it completely through an exterior wall merely because she was a bit miffed, drove home how strong some martial artists were. Even not very good ones like her sister. What they used now to take her down in the event of an '_episode_', as they rather euphemistically termed such events, was enough soporifics to drop a charging rhino. "And even then it would be out for hours. _She_ wakes up ten minutes later looking like she's a little drunk," one of the medical technicians, chosen for his sharpshooting skills more than anything else, complained with wonder and a certain amount of bitterness. At least the young woman was normally calm again by that point.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the hospital obviously wanted her to spend as little time as possible on their premises she'd probably have been committed by now. As it was it had taken some considerable persuasion by Nabiki to make them continue the sessions. While there had been some improvement in the first few weeks, that seemed to have plateaued some time ago, which was extremely frustrating for all concerned. The latest therapist was trying a whole range of anger and emotional management techniques, coupled with a complete pharmacopoeia of mood-stabilising drugs, without a huge amount of luck so far. To her credit she hadn't given up yet, though. One major problem was that Akane seemed to metabolise the drugs so fast they barely had time to work. Enough Prozac to make most of Nerima mellow out for a week would affect her for a couple of hours at best.

The young woman was genuinely _trying_ to become less irritable, which impressed her sister, but didn't find it easy. Overall Nabiki would take any improvement she could get but would have been a lot happier if there was more of it. _And_ if when her sister became depressed because of the lack of progress she was making she didn't try cooking!

Both women jumped back as a deep rumble came from the pipework, heralding the sudden blow-back through the drain of several litres of water that sprayed all over the room. Dripping wet and very annoyed, Nabiki stomped off to change her clothes, muttering obscenities to herself, while Nodoka sighed and began to mop the floor.

By dinnertime that evening Genma had recovered sufficiently to be ambulatory and Soun was sitting in the corner of the living room sipping some green tea while looking rather green himself. Neither of them was at all hungry. Akane had finally come out of the bathroom looking pale, wan, and extremely embarrassed. She apologised quietly to both her sister and Nodoka before going to bed early. The two women enjoyed a quiet meal, while Soun watched with a faintly nauseated expression and Genma had to leave the room entirely. "I'm going to visit friends early tomorrow morning, Auntie," Nabiki said as they cleaned up after the meal. "I probably won't be back until the next day, around lunch time."

"Is it your friend and her... partner... again, dear?" Nodoka enquired, the pauses almost unnoticeable. Nabiki was inwardly slightly irritated, the older woman seemed to still have problems with the concept of same-sex relationships, but to be fair to her was doing her best not to show it. She nodded.

"Yes. I haven't been able to catch up with them since that first time, too much to do what with Akane and university. They called and invited me out to dinner, and to be honest I need a bit of a break."

"Have fun, Nabiki. Try not to get into trouble." Nodoka looked at her sidelong, a slight smile playing at her lips. It took the younger woman a few seconds to realise she was being teased. Since the time she came down hard on Akane and Kodachi, the older woman had been treating her as much more of an equal than before, which included showing more of a sense of humour that she would have expected. She grinned back.

"I'll do my best."

"Are you going anywhere near Minato?" the auburn-haired woman said. Slightly worried, Nabiki raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Only it seems to be a bit dangerous at the moment. I saw another report on the news just before you got home about some sort of monster attack. That's the fourth one in the last three months."

"I'm not sure where the restaurant is," Nabiki said truthfully, ducking the main thrust of the question. "Four?" she asked after a moment. "I'd only heard about two." Ranma's mother nodded.

"Yes. There may have been five, in fact, but the reports of what might have been the first one are very uncertain. It was at the same time you first visited your friend, you probably missed it." Nabiki bit her lip, thinking that she'd only barely missed it. Or, more accurately, been missed _by_ it. "The report on the news was very interesting. For some reason they seem to have a lot of attractive girls in very unsuitable clothing running around dealing with all those monsters they keep getting. I always thought that was a bit exaggerated, but apparently it's true." She made a tutting noise. "What are their mothers thinking letting them out in public wearing so little? It's very unseemly."

Nabiki turned her face away trying not to giggle. 'I_f only you knew..._' Picking up the last of the plates she carried them into the kitchen. "I've heard that Minato is nearly as strange as Nerima," she commented, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice. Nodoka followed her and began to fill the sink with hot water.

"They don't seem to have many proper martial artists," the other woman said absently, putting a squirt of soap into the water and turning off the tap. "I saw some of the film they had of one of these groups of girls fighting the monster, they're not nearly as good at fighting as, for example, Shampoo is. If it wasn't for their magical powers I think they'd get into a lot of trouble." She paused with her hands in the water, looking reflectively at it. "Some of them do seem to be very good, though. There were two girls, the only ones I saw who seemed to be dressed appropriately, who obviously knew exactly what they were doing. They didn't seem to think much of the other girls either, one of them was shouting at them like a drill sergeant. The others seemed quite frightened of her. I'm not surprised, she had a very impressive presence." Nabiki was having immense difficulty not dropping to the floor and howling with laughter.

"Her friend was very pretty, actually they both were, but the little one was also a bit severe. She should smile more often. The taller blonde one didn't say much, but she seemed to worry the other girls nearly as much as the small shouty one." Nabiki made a weird little noise between her teeth, her eyes bulging with the effort of keeping her mouth shut. Nodoka didn't seem to notice. "The small girl had beautiful hair from what I could see on TV, although I'm not sure about the blue highlighting, and a lovely figure. I think she needs to be a little less forceful, though, or she'll never find a husband, men are intimidated by a woman who speaks her mind," Nodoka mused while behind her Nabiki rammed the dishcloth she was holding into her mouth in an attempt to stay quiet, her shoulders shaking.

"Still, she did seem to know what she was doing. It was quite amusing the way she made the other girls pick up all the debris their attack left behind, then apologise to the man whose car they'd damaged. She seems to have considerable civic pride. It went down well, all the bystanders who saw it looked very pleased." Shaking her head she resumed washing the dishes. "It's an odd place, Minato."

Nabiki needed a good five minutes before she could begin drying the dishes.


	16. Chapter 16

"...and then she said, '_Men are intimidated by a woman who speaks her mind!_'" Nabiki leaned weakly against the back of the bench in the roof garden, laughing so hard she could barely gasp out the punchline. Kasumi had both hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with mirth, while Ranma was rolling on the ground laughing like an idiot. Eventually the martial artist gained control of himself and managed to sit up. Wiping tears from his eyes he grinned at his sister-in-law.

"Thanks for that. I needed a good laugh. She really said all that?" Nabiki nodded, still chortling to herself. She'd arrived half an hour ago, pressing the intercom button at the main door and being admitted immediately. After greetings had been exchanged and an offer of coffee had been made and accepted, the three of them had gone up to the roof to enjoy the early autumn morning. It was just beginning to become cooler, so they wanted to make the most of the sunny day. Catching them up on the various events in the Tendo household had led to the final anecdote.

Kasumi slumped down beside her sister, giggling furiously, watching her husband with twinkling eyes. "Never find a husband..." she said to herself, making him look at her with amusement. "That's quite likely. She's a perceptive woman sometimes, your mother." He nodded, grinning, as she started giggling again. Nabiki watched them fondly. Her sister suddenly stood, approached the snickering form of her husband, then shimmered into another form, one that Nabiki hadn't encountered yet. Tall, blonde, very handsome, the man knelt in front of the martial artist, who watched with amusement. "Ah, my beautiful wench, marry me!" the disguised Kasumi said in a rich baritone. As Nabiki watched, eyes wide and a laugh bubbling up inside, Ranma became female, standing and holding the hand of his currently male-appearing wife.

"My dear sir," she said in a haughty way, "I could never marry someone who did not respect me speaking my mind."

"I find you intimidating, 'tis true, but I believe I can overcome that." The other hand of the blonde man was pressed against his brow melodramatically.

"See that you do, or we have no future together." Ranma pulled her hand back sharply, staring at the figure kneeling in front of her disapprovingly. Nabiki couldn't take it any more, roaring with laughter and sliding off the bench. Kasumi started laughing as well, the baritone voice sliding upwards in scale as she resumed her true appearance. The red-head slipped to her knees and hugged her wife, tears of laughter running down her face.

"You two would make her brain melt and run out her ears," the middle sister gasped out, holding her stomach. "If you ever get tired of beating up monsters and magical girls, aim for the stage. Or perhaps the movies." Ranma grinned, standing and pulling Kasumi to her feet. They bowed to the laughing brunette, then simultaneously curtsied, just to be sure. She howled again, nearly unable to breath. "Stop, please stop. I'm going to have an accident."

The three young women finally stopped giggling some minutes later, with difficulty. "I missed this," Nabiki said, looking at the other two. Her sister looked back sympathetically as they sat together on the bench.

"It's not been easy back in Nerima, has it?"

"No. The situation with Akane is, um, not going as well as I'd like. You know I managed to get her to agree to therapy?" They both nodded. "She's still going, so that's good, but it doesn't seem to be having much effect recently."

"We've had some reports of what's been going on, but not everything. We did hear that you gave her and Kodachi a bloody good talking to when you got back last time." Ranma smiled at her, thinking about what she'd heard. It sounded like the middle sister had been channelling Yori rather well.

"Yes, that was sort of funny. A pure fluke that everything happened right then, while you and those magical girls were fresh in my mind." She giggled again. "You should have seen Kodachi's expression. She had _no_ idea how to deal with it. I really didn't think it would work, with either of them, but it did. Remarkably well. The Kuno idiot has been treating me quite respectfully ever since. So has your mother. Did you know she offered me the use of her katana if I needed some, ah, visual aids?" Ranma stared, then laughed.

"Wow. You must have impressed her."

"I think so. She had a weird look on her face afterwards, she heard the whole thing. To be honest she seems to be getting slightly more normal as time goes on. Sometimes she even makes jokes." The red-head looked surprised.

"Are they any good?" Kasumi asked curiously. Nodding, Nabiki smiled a bit.

"Sometimes she can be quite funny." Her face fell after a moment. "Unfortunately, the immediate aftermath of that little lecture was that Akane nearly had a breakdown. True, it got her to agree to go to therapy sessions, but I was worried about her for a while afterwards. She was very depressed for a couple of weeks." The brunette explained about the ups and downs of the youngest Tendo undergoing therapy.

"A dart gun?" Ranma asked in disbelief. She nodded.

"Yep. It was the only thing they could think of. That first time a security guard came in and tried a taser on her. She didn't even notice. Just kept giggling and breaking things. In the end they had to evacuate that wing of the building and wait for her to get bored. After that, once I talked them into trying again, they spent quite a long time coming up with other ways of dealing with her if she went off the deep end again. That was the only thing that worked at all. The darts have enough sedatives in to stun a whale, but she shakes them off in a few minutes. The doctors can't believe it, but have to accept it." She shook her head, almost proud of her younger sister. Ranma and Kasumi glanced at each other with raised eyebrows.

"I'm kind of impressed that she's still sticking at it. That shows more discipline than she ever showed for the art." The martial artist shrugged a little. "Perhaps she's not beyond saving there either."

"Your father seems to think that's true." At the red-head's quizzical look, she explained, "The day it all came to a head he was watching her with a weird look, it was like he was seeing her for the first time in some way. He didn't say anything about it then, but I caught him looking at her in a sort of evaluating way several times over the next few weeks. I finally got annoyed and cornered him, then forced him to explain." She giggled. "He seems a bit scared of me now for some reason." Ranma grinned. "What he finally admitted is that he thinks that Akane has a lot of potential, but like you've always said, didn't have the right mental outlook to really learn much more than she has done already. But after she agreed to go to therapy, and more to the point has kept at it despite all the setbacks and disappointments, he seems to think that she might be developing the right mindset."

"I wouldn't trust him further than I could throw him," Ranma cautioned. Nabiki looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"In your case that's a fairly impressive distance, but I get your point. I don't. But everything else aside, he _is_ a very good martial artist. Not a very good _person_, but... He taught you, after all, and while I know that a lot of what you can now do is a result of other people's teaching and your own work, he got you started. Perhaps he could help Akane. Perhaps not. I'm not even going to let him try until she's made more progress." She fell silent for a moment, as the other two glanced at each other. "The thing she really lacks is discipline, as you've said for years. A combination of therapy and some real martial arts tutoring might do something to fix that." She sighed a little helplessly, waving her hand at her sister.

"If only she had the ability to learn that you have. I still can't believe how good you got in such a short time." Kasumi looked pleased, while her husband smiled.

"Don't forget, Kas wasn't starting from scratch by a long way. You all had quite a bit of Anything Goes training when you were younger, that laid the groundwork very well. Akane may well have been the only one who kept at it, even in the half-assed way she did, but Kas learned a lot back then. And she's done quite a bit of Tai Chi and the like since as exercise." She looked seriously at the brunette. "All three of you Tendo women already knew more about martial arts than most people will ever learn, it's just that two of you simply didn't have the actual practice. You know a lot of the theory, in effect. I was able to build on that." She laughed a little. "That said, Kas is exceptional by any standards. I know how good I am, it's a gift added to a hell of a lot of practice and pain, but if she had gone through the same training I did from the same age, I sometimes wonder if she might even be better. She also has the gift, in spades." Her wife now looked embarrassed at the praise.

"I'm not that good," she protested mildly. Ranma looked at her with an amused expression.

"Oh, trust me, you are. I know I'm a good teacher, but even taking that into account you've learned much more in a far shorter amount of time that I could ever have hoped for or expected." She put an arm around her wife and pulled her close. "It makes me extremely proud, and also feel that everything was ultimately worth it." Nabiki watched them for a moment with a small smile.

"You two are incredible," she said softly. "And very lucky." Kasumi put the arm that wasn't occupied with holding the red-headed woman who was her husband around her sister.

"I know. More lucky than I can believe, sometimes." Squeezing her sister a bit, she looked at her serenely. "I hope that one day you find someone you will love as much. I'm sure you will."

Ranma grinned at her past his wife. "Hey, Nabiki, there's a good chance that you would be quite good at the art as well. It's in your blood, that much I'm sure of. I could teach you, or Kas could. Interested?" She stared at the other woman, very surprised. The thought had never really entered her mind. After a long moment she shook her head.

"I don't know. Do you really think so? I find it hard to believe I could ever do anything like the things I've seen you and Kasumi do. It's like magic."

"Well, to be honest, some of it _is_ magic," the young woman said with a grin, turning back into a young man. Nabiki sighed in exasperation.

"You know perfectly well what I mean, you twit." He grinned again. "Mind you, that disguise spell might come in handy." The martial artist looked thoughtful.

"I'm not sure I could teach it on it's own. It needs a lot of ki ability as well as the magic manipulation, and I don't know any way to get either of them without the martial arts as well." He fell silent, pondering the idea. Eventually he shook his head slightly. "I'd have to think about it some more. It might be possible, but I really don't know for sure. The way I do magic is so different from the way a normal mage does they keep on insisting that it _isn't_ magic at all. But they don't seem to know what it is. I know it's not ki, or at least not very much ki, so if it's not magic either..." He shrugged.

"Trust you to be so confusing that even a wizard or something thinks you're weird." Nabiki giggled at the satisfied expression that crossed his face at her comment.

"I do my best."

After a few more seconds, she shook her head again. "I'm really not sure. There are so many practical problems, aside from anything else. Having to be so careful when I come here is the biggest one. Thanks for the offer, but I'd need to think about it a lot more." He nodded.

"Fair enough. The offer stands, though. And if I figure out how to teach ki, or magic or whatever it is, on it's own, I'll let you know." Pushing himself to his feet, he looked down at the two women. "Speaking of the Art, it's time for practice, student." Kasumi smiled at him coyly.

"Oh, grand master, is it that time again?" Giggling she held out her hand and he pulled her to her feet. Nabiki watched them with amusement.

"Strange, you two. Very strange." Laughing they descended into the practice room, the two martial artists going off and changing into their exercise silks while Nabiki made herself another cup of coffee. Sipping it she wandered back to the practice room and watched as they sparred for an hour or so, marvelling at the speed and precision of their movements. It was genuinely beautiful, a potentially deadly dance that only needed the right music to be a work of art in more than name.

The sound of blows being deflected made her wince at first, noises like that shouldn't come from a human body. At least without being immediately followed by screaming and a lot of blood. These two didn't seem to even notice, which was genuinely impressive and slightly worrying. After a while she stopped twitching at each thump and crack, sitting back and enjoying the show. It was far better than anything she'd even seen on television or in a movie. _'It makes Hollywood movies look like amateur work, and this is even better because none of it is special effects,_' she thought. '_They could make a killing as stunt people, never mind that incredible acting ability._' She shook her head in wonder. '_That's just freakishly effective._'

Once the two had run the gamut of hand to hand moves, they suddenly started bringing out the special effects. Nabiki frankly stared in disbelief when they stepped a couple of metres apart and took up something similar to a fencing stance, with energy swords abruptly appearing in their hands. "Holy shit!" she squeaked. Kasumi glanced at her with a smile. "You've gotten better at that, haven't you, sis?" the middle sister asked, when she got over the shock.

"Yes, it took a lot of practice, but I can finally control it quite well." She waved her '_light-saber_' around with a deep hum coming from it. It was a meter and a half of her familiar golden-white ki in the form of a rod about two centimetres in thickness. Ranma had a similar one, except that his was a pale bluish colour. Nabiki watched them with a worried expression.

"If you slip, you'll chop each other to pieces," she said, feeling nervous. Ranma smiled reassuringly at her.

"No, it's safe. The power level is very low, they just tingle. Look." He held out his arm and Kasumi waved her energy beam across it. The solid-appearing rod of light passed smoothly through his arm without leaving a mark.

"Amazing. So you can set it to _stun_ or_ kill_?" his sister-in-law asked with a grin.

"More or less." He laughed. "It's more along the lines of _slice_ or _dice_, but at low power it doesn't cause damage. Looks impressive, though." She nodded vigorously.

"Damn right. It's incredible." A thought crossed her mind, and she asked curiously, "Is the sound deliberate?"

"Kind of. At higher power it does make a weird noise, I think it's due to the air being heated and pushed out of the way. But you can also deliberately force it to make sounds. Blame those movies. I couldn't resist, and Kas thinks it's fun." He waved his energy sword around, the light and deep throbbing hum when it moved making a very convincing effect. With a grin he did it again and this time it produced a turbine-like whistle. "With a lot of work I could probably figure out a way to make it play music, but that's just getting silly." Nabiki stared, then laughed.

"I know I keep saying it, but wow. And also, you really are _very_ odd." He bowed to her, amused. "What about the colour? That," she pointed at his energy blade, "is the same colour I've seen your ki attacks have before, but when you were Yori it was bright purple. And Kasumi's is that nice golden colour."

Looking at the beam of ki coming from his hand, he nodded. "Originally the ki colour was related to emotional state. Blue was confidence, for example, while green, like Ryoga always produced, was depression and sadness. Akane, when she manifests a ki aura, always made a dark red one, which is of course anger." He sighed a little at the thought. "There's a school of thought that says that using emotionally-linked ki can be dangerous, that it can reinforce those emotions. Like in Ryoga's case, because he's depressed his ki reflects that, but by producing ki attacks using it the feedback makes him even more depressed, and so on."

"That sounds nasty," Nabiki commented, thinking about it.

"It is. But I'm not sure it's completely accurate. Oh, there's some truth to it, definitely, but it's not the whole story. Becoming dependent on being in a particular emotional state to produce ki attacks I suspect is the bigger problem. If you only know how to produce anger ki, you tend to stay angry so you can use it. I think it might be the other way around than people think, not that the emotion is produced or reinforced _by_ the ki, but that emotion helps produce the ki and you subconsciously become convinced that you can _only_ do it when feeling that emotion." He shrugged. "In some ways it may not matter which way around it is, if you don't take steps to deal with it either one will cause major problems. I came to realise this years ago, and finally managed to separate the emotion from the ki completely. It wasn't easy, when you've been taught, or taught yourself, that the two are closely linked, it takes a lot of practice to unlearn that link."

He looked at his wife who was listening with interest. "When I taught Kas the basics of ki manipulation I was very careful to make sure that I didn't connect it to emotional state. As a result she never learned the bad habits I did. That probably sped up her mastery of it a lot as well, which was an unexpected benefit. It took longer to get her started, but once she got the idea progress was very fast."

"So the colour is more personal preference than anything else?" Nabiki found the concept amusing. He nodded with a smile.

"Pretty much. I like blue, Kas likes that remarkable golden colour. It took her ages to get it just the way she wanted it." He held his energy beam out in front of him and Nabiki watched as it slowly cycled through the entire spectrum. The sight was weirdly beautiful. "When I'm Yori, I use the purple colour because it's not something that people would associate with Ranma, and it really stands out. Kind of matches her eyes as well."

"So what about the intimidating glow when you get really angry?" The martial artist looked slightly embarrassed.

"Well, I'll admit that very strong emotions do make me... sort of... leak." Kasumi and Nabiki both giggled. "When your reservoir gets full enough, being really angry can make a small amount to kind of overflow, which makes the glow. That's where the battle aura comes from. Sometimes it's deliberate, but it can also be subconscious." He smiled a bit. "I have pretty large ki reservoirs as it happens. It's the side effect of ki usage, the more you use it the more you _can_ use. A little like building up muscles through exercise. So far, as far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be an upper limit. I'm sure there is one, there has to be, but I haven't found it yet. When I bumped into Herb the first time, for instance, his ki resources were so far beyond mine it was scary. The second time, I was a lot closer. He still had more, but I was closing in. Now... I'm not completely sure, but I suspect I outclass him in sheer ki output by a considerable amount. But available power is only part of it. You also have to have the ability to use that power effectively. Saffron had a lot more than me, for example, both ki and magic, but I still beat him. I figured out a way to use what I had in a way he wasn't expecting or prepared for, and that was all I needed."

He laughed slightly maliciously. "I could probably just crush him with sheer power now, but I still think that it's better to use what you have as efficiently as possible, rather than rely on overwhelming force. That's where most of those magical girls go wrong, they just jump in and blow the hell out of everything, basically carpet bombing the area, when something like a sniper might be more appropriate." Nabiki raised her eyebrows.

"I seem to remember you nuking the park only a few months ago, to get rid of one monster." The young man got an embarrassed expression while his wife started giggling.

"Um, yes. I might have overdone it a bit that time." He looked guilty. "But in my defence it was a very tough beastie."

"_Might_ have overdone it? You left a _twenty meter glass crater_ in the middle of the park! How much more could you have overdone it _by_?" Nabiki laughed, then suddenly stopped when Ranma and Kasumi exchanged odd glances. "Oh shit."

"Umm." He turned off his energy sword and scratched the back of his head.

"How much bigger could you have made it?" Nabiki asked slowly. They exchanged glances again.

"Umm..." She pinched the bridge of her nose.

"It's a lot, isn't it? And don't say 'Umm'." He smiled a little.

"Well..." She sighed loudly. "Yes, it's a lot." He paused again. "Really quite a lot."

"How much is a lot?" she asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know.

Turning to look out one of the large windows at the park behind the building, he pointed to the other side of the large expanse of green and trees. "I'm not completely sure, but I think the other side of the crater would be over there somewhere." She stared.

"From here?" He nodded. "To over there?" He nodded again. Standing, the middle Tendo walked to the window and looked at the park carefully for some time, before turning back to inspect the fairly innocuous young man standing in the middle of the room. "That must be over half a kilometre!" Yet another nod. "Fuck me," she said faintly, sliding down the wall to sit at the base of it, staring at him in horrified amazement. For some reason she didn't doubt his claim at all.

"I could probably only do it once, before I ran out of power completely," he said, making her laugh slightly hysterically.

"Oh, that makes it fine then." Shrugging, he looked at his wife, who smiled slightly. After some moments, she said in a vaguely amused voice, "You're so far beyond the normal martial artists and magical girls it's not even funny." Giving him a hard stare, she added, "I've never met anyone whose abilities should be measured in megatons before." He chuckled, walking over to sit beside her.

"It's kind of scary when you think of it like that. If it's any help, Happosai is nearly as powerful, and he's never blown up a city. Herb could make a pretty big hole as well."

"_You_ blew up a mountain. Twice."

"Ah. Well, yes, there is that. But it was an accident."

"_Twice_."

"Yes."

"OK, then." She giggled, and he snickered a little. "When _most_ people have a bit of an oopsie, they need to replace some dishes or something like that. Not redraw maps." This made him laugh. Indicating her sister, she asked, "How big a hole can _you_ blow in the scenery?" Ranma glanced at his wife with a smile.

"We haven't had cause to find out yet. Probably only a little one, perhaps ten or fifteen metres across?" Nabiki stared at him once more, then at her sister.

"I was _joking_, damn it!" She inspected the gently smiling taller woman for a long moment. "Really, sis?" Kasumi nodded.

"I believe so. As my slightly disturbing husband said, the more ki you use the more you can use, and I've been practising a lot since you were last here." She vanished her own energy beam and sat down beside her sister as well. "We've run into several more of those monsters, and twice we've had to deal with them ourselves. The other two times we had to deal with the magical girls who dealt with them. Neither group was very responsible, they caused a lot of damage, so we had to be quite firm with them." She smiled gently at some memory. "It was quite funny. Yori made one group cry she was shouting so much. Everyone else was laughing." The woman looked at her husband. "You really should be less strict, they seemed very upset." He shrugged with an annoyed expression.

"They were being stupid. OK, they managed to destroy that thing, but they wrecked three perfectly good buildings in the process and totalled at least a dozen cars. It was a miracle that no one was killed. Then they were just going to walk away thinking that they'd done their bit. They give the rest of us a bad name."

"Still, you _were_ a little harsh. That group is normally nowhere near as clumsy." Her husband sighed.

"I know. I guess I'll try to make it up to them the next time. Assuming they don't screw it up again." Nabiki was listening with a smile, hearing them talking about making the sort of people most normal citizens would run away from cry just by telling them off was very entertaining.

"Have you found out where those things are coming from? I haven't seen the news reports, I keep missing them, but from what I've been told they sound like that thing in the park." Ranma frowned.

"They are. Identical. They pop up randomly, there doesn't seem to be any pattern I can see yet. Two of them other than that first one close to here, inside our patch, two more outside but close enough I had to go and check them out. Aiko has done some research as well, but we can't find any records of anything quite like them. The portals open, one comes through, and they close again. The things just attack anyone close enough. They don't seem to be much more than very aggressive animals."

"Is it a deliberate attack?" The concept was alarming.

"I'm... not sure. It might be, but it's so random I can't really see the point. I suppose it could be considered a bit like some weird mystical form of terrorism, but it seems like a pretty large amount of effort to go to for not a lot of result. Once you know the trick they're not too hard to put down, you need to evaporate at least fifty percent of the body mass including the head in one attack. Most of the magical girls can manage that one way or another. The problem is that some of them miss." He scowled. "Three times. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the damage. How the hell do you miss something that size _three times?_ They're not _that_ fast."

"If it's not deliberate, why are they coming here? And where from?"

With another shrug he said, "Your guess is as good as mine at this point. One of the nastier demon worlds, certainly, but not one I'm familiar with. About the only possibility that makes any sense to me is that it's either some form of accidental transport, or a weird natural occurrence. Portals do sometimes open spontaneously, but five in a row in such a small area seems a bit unlikely. I guess it's not impossible. About all we can do is deal with them when they come through, and hope that either it stops, or a portal opens close enough to someone who can work out the origin that it can be permanently dealt with."

The young man shivered a little. "I'm just damn glad that so far all of them have appeared around here, where there are people that can deal with the things. If one came through in the middle of the Tokyo business district there would be carnage before anyone could get there and stop it. They've already killed seven people. None in the last three incidents, thankfully."

The thought of one of the things she'd witnessed suddenly appearing in the middle of a shopping centre was enough to make Nabiki's stomach turn. The sat in silence for a moment reflecting on the situation, before the two martial artists got up and resumed their practice. Nabiki watched with interest and amusement as they leapt around slashing at each other with humming energy blades, which made vicious crackling sounds when they intersected. The sight rapidly drove away the somewhat depressed mood she'd fallen into during the earlier discussion of otherworldly man-eating monsters.

After half an hour of practice with the blades, they each produced another one in their other hand, then proceed to have at it while dual-wielding '_light-sabers_'. Nabiki stared open-mouthed. Ranma was clearly better at it than his wife, but she was no slouch either, if nothing else the sheer speed was unbelievable. '_Good grief. That's probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen,_' the brunette thought to herself, watching her sister do a double somersault over the head of her husband while simultaneously blocking one energy blade with both of hers. His other one penetrated both her defences and her the instant she landed, making her stand looking at the beam of light going in the centre of her chest and out her back with irritation. "Damn," she muttered. Nabiki had both hands over her mouth, for a horrifying second she'd thought that the woman was in serious trouble before remembering that the blades were harmless.

"Not bad, Kas. Not bad at all. You're getting better very fast." Ranma turned off his blades and embraced his wife, who still seemed a bit annoyed.

"Not fast enough." She hugged him back. He laughed.

"Always the perfectionist. Come on, against almost anyone else you'd chop them into little bits." The thought clearly cheered her up while making her sister look slightly nauseous. "Right, I think that's enough for now. It's time for lunch." Standing, Nabiki accompanied them into the living room. Once they'd changed and showered, Kasumi prepared a light meal, which they slowly ate while catching up on all the things that had happened over the last few months.


	17. Chapter 17

"Have you had much contact with the Amazons recently?" Kasumi asked her sister, while Ranma washed the dishes and listened. They were in the kitchen, putting things away, the elder Tendo showing the younger where things went. Nabiki shook her head.

"Not all that much in the last couple of months. Shampoo dropped by a while ago, just to say hello. Her Japanese is pretty good now, all that practice paid off. She's frustrated with Mousse again, he's still pining after her like, well, like she pines after _him_." She jerked her thumb at the young man with his hands in the hot soapy water, who looked mildly amused. "We were talking about Akane and the problems with the hospital. She thought the idea of having to use a vet's dart gun on her was very funny. Akane didn't, not very much, but took it in good humour for her." She laughed a little. "They've almost become friends in some weird way. As long as the subject steers clear of either Ranma or you they can have a civilised conversation."

"What about Cologne?" Ranma asked, drying his hands and turning to them. Nabiki looked over her shoulder.

"I haven't seen her for some time. She keeps to herself pretty much. Since I haven't been to the Café in a while there's been no real reason to see her."

Kasumi closed the last cupboard, then went back into the living room with the other two following her. They sat down on the sofa. "Any signs of Ryoga?" Ranma was quite curious.

"No, thank god. I haven't heard anything from or about him for more than a year now. I hope he stays away. Personally I never much cared for him anyway, but leaving that aside, any gains Akane is making would be ruined at the merest hint of him showing up. Even more than with you." She shuddered. "It would be absolute bloody chaos. Kodachi was bad enough, although that did work out in the end. Ryoga... No, the best thing would be if we never see him again."

"I doubt we'll be that lucky," Ranma said darkly. She nodded glumly. The part time pig did indeed have a nasty habit of turning up at the worst possible moment.

"It's been quite quiet, really. I haven't run into Tatewaki for weeks, and even when I did he was surprisingly polite. Almost sane. Ukyo and Konatsu seem to be settling down to a nice life together, I wouldn't be at all surprised to get a wedding invitation at some point. The only real trouble has been Akane flipping out every now and then, but even there she's at least breaking things at the hospital rather than home." Kasumi looked at her with a slight smile.

"Have you been able to get the Dojo repaired properly yet?" Her younger sister nodded, pleased.

"Yes. Finally, after close to four years, it's completely repaired. The amazing thing is that it was paid for by the profits from our fathers teaching. They've picked up four more students in the last month or so, which means they're actually turning a profit. Not a huge one, but still... I never thought that would happen. They run two classes now, a beginner one and a more advanced class, taking turns to teach them." She laughed. "They still insult each other regularly, and have fights almost every day. The students seem to enjoy it. To be honest, I think they do as well."

Ranma seemed both surprised and impressed. "I'm genuinely amazed that they've stuck to it for so long. No disrespect to your family, but your father never struck me as someone who could cope, well, at all really, to say nothing of the problems of running a business. And as for mine..." He shrugged. "You know my feelings towards him." Nabiki smiled a little.

"Only too well. I share a lot of them. But I will admit he's surprised me. He was the one to pull my father out of a bottle of sake years ago, and in many ways the driving force behind them taking up teaching again. Not that he's much of a role model but he does seem to have tried to improve himself. Now he's just a waste of space, not a waste of oxygen as well." Both Ranma and Kasumi grinned. "And as for Father, I've shared your opinions of him for a long time. He's our father, but he's also been pretty useless since mother passed on. She would have been very disappointed." The young woman frowned a little, momentarily depressed. "But he's definitely getting better. I really hope that this change sticks for good. I'd like to have my father back again." She looked at Kasumi, who nodded.

"So would I." She looked sad. "I do wish I could visit him, and Akane as well, but..." Ranma put his hand on hers.

"One day."

There was silence for a while as they busied themselves with their own thoughts, ultimately broken by Ranma. "So, most people seem to be getting their lives in order. Good for them. It's a pity it took... that... to trigger it." He winced at the memory. "I'm still in no hurry to meet up with them again, but it sounds like it might not be impossible eventually. We'll see." He cast an interrogative glance at the middle sister. "How's your own studies going?"

"Pretty well. The accountancy and financial operations courses are both interesting and quite easy. The advanced math is, um, advanced. Not easy at all, but I'm managing. All the computer courses are a lot of fun."

"What do you intend to do when you graduate?" Kasumi was quite curious. Nabiki made a small gesture, expressing a certain amount of uncertainty.

"I'm not sure. When I originally decided on these courses a few years ago I was kind of thinking stock broker, financial advisor, that sort of thing. I mean, I _like_ money." She grinned as the other two nodded knowingly. "But since I started, and more to the point since one somewhat traumatic night nearly four years ago, I've been wondering if there might be something a bit more rewarding in other than the purely monetary manner." Her sister inspected her with interest, then glanced at her husband, who seemed surprised.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Again, I'm not sure." She laughed a little. "You know, all that work I did to track you two down, that was a lot of fun. Not at all easy, but it required a lot of computer and people skills, and detective work. More than once I've wondered if I should be using those skills in a career instead of the financial ones." Her sister nodded thoughtfully.

"You could combine them." Responding to the quizzical look from Nabiki, she expanded on her thought. "Forensic Accountancy. That's something I saw on TV. It requires a very sharp mind, I suspect, and also all the skills you either have or are learning. Detective work, but in the field of money." Nabiki sat up and looked very interested.

"Hmm. Now that's an interesting idea. I'll bet it pays pretty well, too." At her sister's slightly exasperated expression, she shrugged. "Hey, I _told_ you I like money." Ranma laughed. She thought about it some more. "That's really not a bad idea. I'll have to look into what's involved." She smiled at her sister. "Thanks, sis." Kasumi looked pleased.

"So, what have you guys been up to, other than slaughtering other-worldly monsters and frightening skimpily-dressed schoolgirls with your frankly terrifying super-human abilities?" Nabiki grinned at them. Ranma laughed, abruptly becoming Yori.

"I'm not terrifying, am I, dear?" the black-haired girl asked, her aura glowing a slightly radioactive blue-purple as she sat next to her wife, waving one hand around lazily with streamers of purple light coming from her fingertips. Nabiki watched with amused amazement. Kasumi leaned against her contentedly.

"Not in the slightest. To me, at any rate." 'Yori' grinned, her small fangs showing, putting her arm around her wife and changing back to a female Ranma. Nabiki laughed delightedly at the effects.

"I just can't get over how convincing you are in all these different identities. How you manage to keep it all straight is beyond me. And, yes, you are _damn_ terrifying when you want to be, as you very well know." Ranma nodded pleased acknowledgement of the comment.

"Thanks. It was a lot of hard work."

"I like the visual effects. Is that new?" She nodded again.

"Yep. I got a bit bored a while back and tried to find out what else we could do with this ki/magic combination thing, whatever it actually is. It drives the mages I know to distraction, most of them pretend it doesn't exist now. One of them even looks physically ill when I mention it in his presence." She giggled. "I'm pretty sure it really is magic, because I know damn well what ki is and it's not that, even though it uses ki for control and direction. But it's some sort of magic that doesn't agree with the normal method." Nabiki laughed.

"I still have difficulty with the concept that there is a '_normal method__'_ of magic." Her sister smiled, and Ranma giggled again.

"I know. It's kind of weird. But you can't argue with success. It works, whatever other people say. If they don't understand how, that's more a limitation of theirs." She looked amused. "I tried to teach it to one of the more receptive magic workers. She got a huge headache after about fifteen minutes and needed to lie down. After that she refused to even think about it any more. Apparently it's not very compatible with what she uses." The red-head shrugged. "Not my problem. One of the things that seems to upset them is that this method doesn't use spells in the form they are used to, it's more a matter of will, like with ki. The downside is that it can take a lot of effort to work out the right... pattern, I guess is the best word, to produce the effect you want. You have to be able to visualise it, and I think it's in more than three dimensions."

Nabiki was listening with interest and a certain amount of surprise. It sounded very strange, even given the indisputable existence of magic in the first place. "How can you visualise something in more than three dimensions?" The red-head waved a hand airily.

"Oh, it takes a lot of practice. And I suspect a very odd mindset. That might be why no one seems to have come up with it before." She looked thoughtful. "I still find it unlikely that I've invented it from nothing, someone else must have come up with it in the past. But no one I've mentioned it to seems to know about it, and most of them don't believe it until I show them. Sometimes not even then." Glancing at her wife, she smiled. "Luckily it turns out that I can teach it, although probably only to someone else with a particular mental outlook and also a lot of ki potential. It may be that learning one of the '_traditional_' forms of magic precludes learning this form. It's a pity, it's a lot more flexible."

Kasumi interjected, "It's very interesting to learn, but like she says, not at all easy. At least at first. Once you master the basic principles it seems to come more easily, but needs a lot of practice to be something you can do quickly. When you _do_ get to that point it's much faster than what I've seen of ordinary magic." By way of an example she flickered through half a dozen illusory forms in under a second, the shimmering effect associated with the spell continuous. Nabiki stared.

"Wow. Again."

Smiling at her wife, Ranma added, "It also seems to be vastly more efficient in how much energy it needs than most spells. The original illusion spells I used as the basis of this one would take several seconds to run, and a decent mage could do perhaps three or four spells like that before needing to go and sit down. When I showed _that_ demonstration to the mage I was trying to teach, she got a nosebleed. Then she wouldn't talk to me for a month." The young woman looked amused.

"I've been trying to learn to create portals, for quite a while now. Unfortunately, that particular type of spell is in a class of it's own for complexity. Add that to the difficulty of this method when you're adapting a more standard spell, it gets kind of overcomplicated." She shrugged a little once more. "I'll work it out eventually. I may have to start from scratch though." Nabiki listened with interest, it seemed that there was nothing the martial artist wouldn't have a go at.

"Isn't that a bit dangerous?" she asked, slightly worried. Ranma looked amused.

"Well, the portals themselves are pretty safe. Where you end up might not be, of course. But I know the co-ordinates to several places that are fine. We've visited Uthryyl's world, for example, and while it's very strange it's no more dangerous than here." Once more Nabiki was surprised, staring at the two other women.

"You've visited other worlds?" Kasumi laughed.

"Oh, my, yes. Only a few times, but it was very interesting." Shaking her head her sister studied the tall brunette with new eyes.

"You haven't even been outside Japan, but you've visited other worlds. Demon worlds." Kasumi nodded, her eyes sparkling. "So very weird," Nabiki muttered to herself. After a moment's silence, Ranma continued.

"Anyway, to answer your original question, I got bored, so I started playing around with visual effects. They look impressive, don't take much power, and can make people really worried which can be useful in a battle. If you can intimidate someone enough you may not have to fight them, they'll back down." She grimaced. "Or _possibly_ wildly overreact and attack all out. You have to judge your opponent carefully." Nabiki snickered, that last bit sounded like the voice of bitter experience. The red-head smiled back ruefully. "It's happened. We all make mistakes." Kasumi giggled.

"That was a particularly impressive one."

"Yes, I know, you can let it go any time now." She glanced at Nabiki who was smiling. "She'll never let me live that one down. Right, yes, visual effects. I worked out a way to make the ki glow persistent, mixing it with the magic, and form it into shapes. A bit like the ki beam but not dangerous, and much more free-form." Holding out her hand she formed a pale blue sphere fifteen centimetres across on it, then gently flipped it into the air. It drifted across the coffee table towards Nabiki, whose eyes widened in shock. About to scramble out of it's path, she stopped when Ranma grinned. "Relax. It's harmless." Warily watching the glowing ball she settled back into her seat. The thing slowed to a halt midway between them, hanging in the air in an improbable manner. '_In much the same way bricks don't,_' was the line from a famous book that came to mind, making her giggle for a moment.

She watched with amazement as the sphere of light slowly changed shape, ending up as a perfect cube. Then a pyramid, followed by a torus. Cycling through the spectrum it changed and distorted, taking on many different geometrical shapes, before splitting apart into half a dozen smaller objects, each of which was a different colour. They began orbiting a common centre, each one changing continuously. She glanced at Ranma who was staring fixedly at the little constellation of light she was controlling, sweating lightly. It obviously took considerable work. "That's incredible," the brunette said quietly. Flashing a brief smile at her, Ranma concentrated on her light show, while Kasumi and Nabiki watched, captivated.

All the moving objects collapsed back into basic spheres again, each a different colour, then began moving in more and more complex patterns, forming three dimensional helices and spirals, expanding out from the original point. One of them whizzed past Nabiki's face and, startled, she put up her hand reflexively to fend it off. With no sensation at all it passed right through her hand, making her squeak in shock. "Holy crap!" she muttered, experimentally putting her hand in the way of another one and watching wide-eyed as it went through. "Unbelievable. You've probably invented another art form. All you need is music." The martial artist nodded with a small smile.

The collection of moving lights froze, then collapsed back into a sphere in it's original position over the coffee table. A second or two later, it grew slightly then changed shape, quickly taking on the form of a human head. With a shock Nabiki found herself staring at a ghostly life-size replica of her own face. Ranma grinned looked slightly tired. "I can't do full colour yet, I need to graft in some of the illusion spell I think. That should let me create a very lifelike projection, which might have some tactical uses. But it's fun already, just a bit tiring. I haven't fully mastered it so I have to keep thinking about what I'm trying to do, which is hard work." The misty bluish replica of her head vanished, and the red-head sighed. "It doesn't need much power, the difficulty is concentrating on all the different things you need to keep track of at once."

"It's still damn impressive!" his sister-in-law said with wonder.

"Thanks. That's one of the more complex effects, of course. Simpler ones are much easier, and in many cases more intimidating." She held up her hand again, the streamers of light rising from her fingertips like smoke from a recently extinguished candle but much more visible. After a second or two the glow spread down her fingers to encompass her entire hand, making it look quite dangerous. "I can do this with a ki aura of course, but this method is more flexible, and takes less power. Plus you can do _this_ with it." The glow restricted itself to her index finger, and she quickly wrote her name in the air, the Kanji characters hanging in front of her. Once more Nabiki was impressed.

"The funny thing is, this particular trick seems to be quite stable. Once you form the pattern like this, you don't have to do anything else. It just sits there. I'm not quite sure why yet. After a while, depending how much power you put into it, it goes pop, but up until that point it stays put." She waved her hand through the glowing lines in the air. They passed through it without wavering. "I haven't come up with a particularly good use for it yet but it's kind of amusing."

Nabiki grinned. "You could leave notes for each other. Beats refrigerator magnets and bits of paper."

"True." The other woman smiled, while Kasumi laughed.

"I'm still learning it from her, but I can do that bit now," her sister said. She demonstrated, writing her name in the air as well. The golden characters hung placidly over the table. "I can't do the projection thing very well, it's very difficult."

"How long does it last?" Nabiki asked curiously, sticking her own hand out and waving it slowly back and forth through the writing. Ranma shrugged a little.

"Like I said, it depends on the amount of power. The longest I've tried has been about a day, but I turned it off at that point because I was bored with it. It would probably have run for quite a bit longer. This doesn't have much, it'll disappear in a minute or two. You can stop it whenever you want, of course." She looked slightly worried. "It's possible to pump enough power into it that it becomes dangerous. I found that out the hard way." Looking at her finger ruefully, she added, "It hurt. Like sticking your finger on something very hot, and for me because of that phoenix pill years back, it would have to be _hot_." Nabiki suddenly stopped playing with the glowing characters. Ranma snickered. "Don't worry, you have to put a hell of a lot of energy into it before that happens. You'd know, you'd feel the corona surrounding it before you got your hand very close." They watched as her glowing name abruptly faded away.

"There you go. Ran out of power." Kasumi's lasted another few seconds, before it too faded.

"You know some really neat tricks," Nabiki said, impressed. The young woman smiled, becoming a young man.

"I know," he said happily. "I can't find much of a use for some of them, but they're good practice if nothing else."

"That writing in mid air one could be profitable. If you could make it last for long periods of time you could replace neon signs with it." She looked at him with a sly grin. "Except for your terrible handwriting." He seemed both amused and mildly insulted.

"It's getting better!" he protested. His wife gently smiled at him.

"_Better_ isn't _good_, dear." Huffing in mock annoyance he glared at her, while her sister laughed.

"Everyone's a critic."

Kasumi got up to make coffee. Nabiki also stood, wandering to the window and looking out at the view. "You really do have a nice place here." Ranma walked over to stand beside her.

"I know. We're very lucky to have it. I can never thank Happosai enough, he helped far more than I would have believed possible. Things would have been a lot more difficult without him." He chuckled. "I still find it odd thinking that, my first impressions of the little pervert weren't very good." She smiled.

"_No one_ has a good first impression of Happosai. But... after getting to know him, then they _really_ dislike him." Ranma started laughing helplessly, making her smile. After a moment, she looked at him. "I wanted to ask you something," she began, hesitantly. He returned her gaze questioningly.

"Go on," he said, after a pause. She opened her mouth, then closed it, trying to think of the best way to phrase her question. Eventually she decided to just ask.

"Why are you so nice to me? I did some horrible things to you for years. A lot of what happened at the wedding was my fault, I didn't _mean_ for all that chaos, but if I'd thought about it I should have known that it would happen. I just wanted the money. I charged you for all sorts of ridiculous things, I used you for personal gain. I'm not a very nice person. Yet you let me into your home, you trusted me with all your secrets, you gave me money. Why?" She was almost in tears. He smiled gently at her, in a way that reminded her very strongly of her sister, before leading her back to the sofa. Kasumi came out of the kitchen with coffee on a tray, sitting down and watching silently. Carefully, he helped her to sit, then joined her. Holding her hand, he looked at her for a moment while she searched his face for recriminations, finding none.

"A nice person and a good person are not the same thing. It's better if they are, of course, but it's not required." He smiled as she listened intently. "Yes, you are, or at least were, a very mercenary individual. Cold, efficient, effective. Some people don't like that. Yes, you have done some pretty nasty things to me and quite a few others. You were complicit in the wedding fiasco, that's true. You snuck into my room to take photos of me as a female to sell to Kuno, who is both an idiot and slightly insane. You always had an eye open for a chance to make money from me, and managed to do so on quite a few occasions. None of these are very nice, and several of them are certainly illegal." She stared, as he listed her crimes against him.

"But... You didn't _cause_ the wedding to go to shit. That would certainly have happened with or without you, although you probably made it a little worse. In the end, though, it led to me finally reaching a point in my life where I could be truly happy. As it did with your sister. For that, I can forgive you pretty much anything. There's nothing wrong with being efficient, and there are places where an icy emotionless outlook is essential. While you kept a lot of the money you made from the photos, quite a bit of it went towards running the house, which is good. I wouldn't have let you take them otherwise." Her eyes widened a little and he grinned. "Of course I knew you were there. I'd have been a pretty poor excuse for a martial artist if I didn't notice someone sneaking into my room, never mind pouring water all over me!" She giggled a little nervously.

"Above all, two things stand out to me. One is that to my knowledge, you never lied to me, or anyone else. You may be a master of bending the truth, but you never broke it. And the other is that you, out of all the ones in Nerima after Kas and I left, were in a very real sense the only honourable one. You never tried to hide what you were, you were always true to yourself. You've worked very hard to keep your family together and solvent, when it would have been quite easy for you to walk away. Another thing to remember is that people change as they mature. I know, from what I've seen while we've been watching you all this time, that you had grown up, like we all did. None of us are the same people we were back then. You like money, true, but you don't let it control you. If you had, when Kas offered you a large amount of it, things would have been different." Her eyes widened again and she glanced at her sister.

"It was a test?" she whispered.

"Not completely," her sister said, looking guilty, "but we had to be sure. I was, and Ranma almost was."

"What would you have done if I'd just grabbed it?" She looked between them.

Ranma sighed a little. "More or less the same, but I suspect we wouldn't be having this conversation." She sagged back against the sofa, thinking about what she'd been told. He watched sympathetically.

"We'd have given you the money regardless. I have no wish to see Kasumi's family out on the street, despite how I feel about most of the people back in Nerima. But I don't think we would have been very close. I needed to know I could trust you. Kasumi was sure we could, and I wanted to believe it myself. Like I said months ago, despite all our differences I always sort of respected you even when I didn't like you. Now, I respect you _and_ like you. I really wanted to be proven right, that I could also trust you. I was." She stared at him for a long moment, then hugged him. He returned it with interest, while his wife watched with a pleased smile.

"I'm still not a very nice person," she said quietly into his neck.

"I know, but I think you're a good person, and getting better every day." He chuckled. "Quite a few people would say I'm not a very nice person either." Kasumi giggled.

"No, that's Yori." Both Nabiki and Ranma looked amused.

"I also learned quite a long time ago, it's best not to hold grudges. Not serious ones, anyway. Look at Ryoga. I never really did anything very bad to him, most of what he blames me for was his own damn fault, but he pretty much ruined his own life following me around threatening to kill me. If he'd just let it go and tried to fix his problems, he might not have such a hard time. He certainly wouldn't have the Jusenkyo curse." Nabiki nodded thoughtfully.

"I have no idea how, with the upbringing you had, you turned out such a decent individual." He looked embarrassed.

"Luck, I suppose." She inspected him closely.

"No. There's a lot more to it than that. Whatever it is, I'm very glad it happened." Kasumi smiled at her.

"So am I. More than you can imagine." The older Tendo handed her sister a cup of coffee, the younger one taking it gratefully. Ranma picked up his own and took a sip.

"Feel better now?" Nabiki nodded.

"Yes. Thank you for being honest with me. And, for everything I did, I'm sorry." He waved his free hand dismissively.

"Forget it. What's done is done. All we can do is affect the present and the future, not the past."

"Very deep. Get it from a fortune cookie?" the brunette asked with a grin. He chuckled.

"Yes, as it happens." This made her burst out laughing to the point he had to relieve her of her coffee until she calmed down.

Handing it back to her, he grinned. "I was exceptionally angry at the time we left, as you can probably remember." She shivered, the burning eyes of the red-headed woman still featured in her nightmares. "But oddly enough very little of it was directed at you. Akane, yes, Ryoga, yes, those damn Amazons, oh god yes. Our parents, the Kunos, you name it. But not so much you. I'd had a lot of time to think under all that rubble, one of the things I'd worked out was that what happened was inevitable. Sooner or later something like that was bound to happen, the way my life was going wouldn't allow for any other outcome. In a sense, your contribution was a good thing in the long run, it sped up the timetable. If things had just festered along like they were, when I finally snapped, it might have been... very bad. Very bad indeed." He stopped and sipped some coffee, his eyes not on her but nearly four years in the past.

"I don't like to think about that. I'm a lot more powerful now than I was then, but even so there wouldn't have been much left of the Dojo. If anything." He shook his head, returning to the present. "It may be that you saved a lot of people by being yourself. Luckily, we'll never know what would have happened." Nabiki studied his face thoughtfully.

"Still, I apologise. It was, if nothing else, rude." He grinned.

"No harm in being rude if you pick your moment. Sometimes it's necessary." Turning to look at the clock over the kitchen door, he added, "The restaurant is booked for seven. It's just after two now, it'll take us about half an hour to get there, unless you'd like Kas or me to give you a lift over the roofs?" She shook her head emphatically, causing him to smile. "So, we've got about four hours or so to fill. Is there anything you want to do?"

"Nothing specific. I'm quite happy to sit here and talk, or go out and wander around the neighbourhood. As long as there's no roof-hopping!" She looked severely at her sister, who smiled slightly and sipped her own coffee again. "By the way, where are we going, and who are you going as?" Shaking her head, she added with a smile, "I still can't believe I can ask that without it being stupid."

"The restaurant is on the other side of Minato, near the bay. It's a Thai/French fusion place, which is a weird combination but somehow works pretty well. We've been there a few times when Kas or I didn't want to cook, someone at the university recommended it." Finishing his coffee, he put his cup on the table. "As for who to go as... Hmm. What do you think, love?" Kasumi tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"Well, could we see what's on offer?" He nodded.

"Of course." Standing, he walked a couple of metres away, turning to look at the two women. Nabiki was watching with great amusement, while Kasumi seemed to be treating it like someone being asked to pick a pair of shoes. "OK. First, we have this one, a pretty little number I call Asami." The usual visual effect came, leaving behind a slender female, even shorter than Ranma's female form, with shoulder length black hair, dressed in traditional Japanese clothing. Her eyes downcast, she asked in a soft voice, "Does this meet with your approval, Miss Tendo?" Kasumi considered the figure while Nabiki tried not to giggle.

"No. Too short." She flipped her hand dismissively. "Show me a different one."

"At once, Miss Tendo." The girl shimmered, the figure was still female but now much taller, nearly Kasumi's own height. With very short greenish hair, black eyes, and dressed like a stylish biker babe in quite a large amount of form-fitting leather, she cocked a hip and rested her hand on it. "How about Cheiko?" Nabiki started laughing, the young woman looking towards her challengingly. "Something wrong, girly?" She shook her head, giggling furiously.

"No. This is...," Kasumi waved her hand languidly at the figure in front of her, doing a very good Kodachi impression, "too common. Next."

Once more the figure changed. "Hi. I'm Mariko." This woman was about Kasumi's age, around Nabiki's height, but with immense breasts and a very narrow waist. Long lilac hair reminiscent of Shampoo's hung to below her buttocks, swaying around as she moved. Walking across to Nabiki with a feminine gait, she smiled prettily. "Who are you?" The middle sister watched with amazement, too surprised even to laugh. Kasumi tutted.

"No, definitely not. Much too obvious." The young woman pouted, making Nabiki nearly explode with amusement, the expression was too cute for words. "Show me something in a male, medium-large." With a small sigh the girl walked back to her original spot, once more changing. This time there was a good-looking young man standing there grinning at them in a confident manner. He was roughly the same height as Ranma's normal male form, but with shoulder-length wavy brown hair that obviously required considerable hair-care products. His teeth were a perfect glistening white, his brown eyes twinkling. He looked like a movie star. "Is Kenji acceptable, beautiful?" he asked in a tenor voice with a slight Osakan accent.

"Oh, no, that's far too pretty-boy." Kasumi frowned. Nabiki was having trouble breathing by this point. "Next." With a long-suffering sigh the man nodded, wavering into a different person. This one was huge, at least a hundred and ninety centimetres tall, and very muscular. Dark complexioned with hair so short he was nearly bald, he looked at them through deep blue eyes.

"You're hard to please, lady. I'm Shin. Good enough for you?" Slipping over onto her back Nabiki rolled on the sofa laughing hard enough to break something. The different voices, accents and mannerisms were so convincing she had real trouble accepting it was still Ranma. The man, Shin, looked at her with an irritated expression which made her laugh even harder. "You're pretty weird, girl." Kasumi looked appalled.

"No! Definitely not. I said medium-large, that's an extra-large." 'Shin' sighed heavily.

"Women. Never satisfied." He shimmered away to be replaced by a medium height teenager with acne. Kasumi didn't even let him speak.

"No. Too repulsive." Another figure took his place. Nabiki was laughing furiously.

"No. Too short. Again."

"No. Too thin."

"NO! Too fat."

"Oh, for..." She sighed, inspecting the figure in front of her critically, while Nabiki stared in disbelief. "Too many legs." The centaur looked put upon, then changed again. "Ah. Now we're getting somewhere." Ranma grinned at her. The middle Tendo roared with laughter as he walked over and kissed his wife.

"You two are _completely_ nuts. I do hope you understand that?" They nodded, grinning. "If nothing else you've got the best comedy act I've ever seen."

Ranma bowed ironically. "Thank you. I do what I can." Sitting beside Kasumi, he added, "We're going as Rika and Maiko, actually, that's the name the booking is in."

"How many of those are identities you really use?" Nabiki was very curious. Ranma looked amused.

"I've used all of them except the centaur at one point or another, but I only have documentation for Asami, Mariko, and Shin." He snickered. "I'm not sure where I _could_ use a centaur. But it was interesting coming up with it. Blame too much TV."

Nabiki watched him with wonder. "Forget stunt work, you could turn the world of costumes and special effects on it's head." She suddenly looked thoughtful, then very amused. "Hey, the next time there's a comic book convention in Tokyo you could come up with some really weird ones and go. It would blow those weirdo's minds." Ranma got an interested expression. Kasumi nudged him in the ribs.

"We're supposed to be trying to keep attention away from us, dear, not attracting it."

"But, Kas, it would be so funny," he pleaded, winking at Nabiki.

"I really don't think it's a good idea." He sighed.

"You're only saying that because you don't have any good ones." Glancing slyly at Nabiki he saw her eyes widen. Looking back he grinned at the incredibly beautiful mermaid that was curled up on the sofa next to him, her shimmering golden tail wrapped around her body. Putting one webbed hand on his knee, she smiled prettily at him. "OK, you have _one_ good one."

"Good god," Nabiki managed, staring wide-eyed. The mermaid, who she was having trouble remembering was actually her elder sister, grinned at her, flipping her long green hair over her shoulder with a toss of her head, before shimmering back into Kasumi. "Blow their minds indeed. Un-fucking-believable." Kasumi nodded in acknowledgement of the praise. "I can't get over how amazingly convincing it looks. There's absolutely no indication that it's not real."

"It's a very effective spell," Ranma said with a nod. "I'm still improving it, as is Kas. To be honest, by now it's closer to a shape-shift than an illusion in some ways. It's not really real, but for most purposes you can treat it as such. Sensory feedback is pretty much perfect, all the kinaesthetics work well, and so on. When it's active you really do get most if not all of the physical sensations of the illusory body."

"What about the extra mass? I mean, 'Shin' was at least twice your size, and the centaur probably weighed two or three times that." Nabiki was thinking about how it could possibly work. Ranma shrugged.

"You tell me. It works a lot like the Jusenkyo curse in that respect. We copied some of the, um, programming I guess, from it. That was about the only bit Kas and I could make heads or tails of other than the trigger. You wouldn't believe how complex it is. But I don't really know how it works, just what it does." He shifted to female. "I weigh about twenty kilos less like this than I do as a male. It's completely real. Even though I weigh more than I should do, because my bone and muscle density is much higher than most people's, I still lose mass when I turn female." Changing back to male, he went on, "And I get it back when I become male again. But where it goes or comes from is something I still can't figure out. We could copy it, though."

"So, when you do that spell for most purposes you really become the thing you're pretending to be?"

"Kind of. It feels, looks, and measures real, as far as I can tell. But it's not stable. As soon as you stop powering it the spell evaporates and you're back where you started, which proves it's not a real change. The Jusenkyo change _is_ real, and completely stable aside from the water trigger. It's a biologically complete change in every way. Only the mind stays the same. Genetically, when I'm female it's as if I was born that way, and likewise for male. The illusion spell doesn't go to that level of detail. Whether it could be made to do so I don't know."

"Very weird. Magic is extremely strange." He nodded with a smile.

"Oh, yes. It is that, all right. But very useful as well." After a moment's thought, he added, "Sometimes the mass thing worries me. Kasumi mentioned it years ago, I'd never really thought about it until then, but she's right. That's the weirdest part. The worrying thing is that if you work out how much energy twenty kilos of mass represents, it's a lot. I mean, an absolutely _huge_ amount. Hundreds of megatons worth in explosion terms. If it was really converting mass to energy and back again, the possibility of a... slip-up... don't bear thinking about. Tokyo would disappear completely." They all thought about that with uneasy expressions.

"That's pretty scary," Nabiki said slowly. He nodded.

"Damn right. But I'm pretty sure that it's not working like that. I think it's pulling the mass from somewhere, then putting it back when it's not needed, but where from I have no idea." With a shrug, he added, "Magic does all sorts of weird things that no one seems to have a good answer for. Quite a few spells should only work with completely preposterous amounts of energy, the Jusenkyo curse is just out the far end of that curve. Since they clearly don't need anything even remotely approaching that amount of energy, it must do something else." He grinned a little. "But it's a good question to raise if you want to make a mage go pale. Most of them have never thought about it. When they do, they _really_ don't like it."

He watched her as she laughed. With a slight smile he glanced at his wife, who had been listening with interest. Raising his eyebrows he flicked his eyes at her sister. She followed his gaze and frowned slightly, then gave him a small nod. Nabiki hadn't noticed. Turning his attention back to her he suddenly got a mischievous smile, as did Kasumi. "What?" Nabiki asked, coughing slightly as her voice squeaked. Their grins grew wider in eerie synchronism. She looked at them questioningly until something made her look down. "Holy crap!" she shrieked. Jumping to her feet, stumbling a little, she stared, stunned at the odd sensations. Lifting one leg she looked at the hoof it now ended in. Blue scales covered her legs under the tight black leather. "Gahh! What did you _do?_" She became aware that her voice sounded completely wrong. Running to the nearest mirror, which was in the main bathroom, she heard and felt the odd sensations of hooves on tile.

Staring back at her was the face of Ranma's demon alter ego, Zythra'a. She looked at it in appalled amazement, opening and closing her mouth and blinking her eyes. Sticking out her tongue she saw it was much too long and also forked. "Fucking hell, this is weird," she said in a voice that wasn't her own. Walking slowly back to the living room she stopped and glared at her sister and brother in law, who were rolling around on the sofa laughing their guts out. "Funny. Very funny indeed. You idiots." She sat again, lifting one leg over the other and feeling the hoof on the end of it curiously. The sensations were completely convincing. "You scared the crap out of me." She ran her hand over the scales on her shin. "This is the weirdest thing I've ever experienced."

Ranma looked at her expression and exploded in renewed laughter. Kasumi was leaning against him giggling uncontrollably. She sat and glared at them with her arms folded until they recovered a little, tapping the talons on the end of her fingers against her elbow. "All done?" They nodded, still chortling. "OK. Can you undo this, please?"

With a grin, Ranma said, "But it suits you, Nabs. Think how you could scare people into doing what you want." She sighed deeply.

"You, Saotome, are a first-class nutcase." He nodded contentedly. She noticed suddenly that she was back to normal. "Thank you. And don't call me Nabs."

"Well? What do you think?" Kasumi finally stopped giggling although her voice was rich with amusement. Nabiki looked at her.

"You are _also_ a nutcase, sis. I don't know which one of you is worse." She thought about it. "I think you could drive someone _completely_ crazy with that little trick, if they didn't know about it. It's damn disconcerting even if you _do_ know about it. But, yes, I admit it's pretty impressive. I could feel everything as if it was real. That's got to be the strangest thing ever." She looked at Ranma. "I suddenly have a lot more insight into what you must have gone through all those years. At least this you can turn on and off with a thought. It must have been difficult when you couldn't." He nodded soberly.

"It wasn't easy. Luckily, you can get used to pretty much anything given enough time. And the right person to help." Putting his arm around his still smiling wife he held her close.


	18. Chapter 18

Finishing off his coffee, Ranma jumped to his feet. "Come on, let's go and do something. I'm getting bored sitting around inside. We've got nearly three and half hours to fill, let's go and wander around outside for a while. Why don't we show you some more of the neighbourhood?" Nabiki looked at him with some exasperation. He seemed rather more full of beans than she expected for a weekend.

"Oh, why not." Standing she looked around for her jacket. Kasumi glanced at her husband, who was peering out the balcony doors at the ground, then smiled. Getting up she disappeared into their bedroom, returning a couple of minutes later as Chou, wearing her grey silk clothing and carrying a small nylon bag. Ranma turned to inspect her, then grinned.

"Good idea. We haven't checked out the area for a couple of days. Clothes for later in the bag?" She nodded.

"Yes, in case we don't get around to coming back, we can change somewhere else. Unless you just want illusory ones."

"No, may as well have the real thing, there wasn't any point in buying them otherwise." He went towards the bedroom himself, his male form melting away into a female one that became Yori before he entered the room. Nabiki watched with amusement.

"You two make all this look completely natural, but it's so incredible. Most people would find it very difficult to believe." Her sister raised an eyebrow, casually flipping her bag into nothingness. Nabiki grinned. "Like that. Do you have any idea how insane that looks? You just made something vanish, for real. But you treat it like you were putting a pair of socks in the drawer." Kasumi giggled.

"I know. Sometimes I find myself thinking this all can't possibly be real. I'm so glad it is." Walking over to her younger sibling she gave her a quick hug. "And I'm glad you can share it with us now. But I'm a little upset you haven't visited more often."

"Sis, you know I wanted too, but what with Akane, my university studies, and basically life in general, it's been impossible. Hopefully things will improve soon." The older woman looked understanding.

"I hope so. It's very nice having you around." Ranma rejoined them in her black silk with the blue stripe. Flipping her long braid over her shoulder having finished adjusting the blue bow Nabiki had seen the last time, she grinned. That expression on the face of her Yori persona was a little worrying, promising a certain amount of potential mayhem.

Nabiki inspected her with interest. "You fixed the clothes, sis?" she asked. There was no trace of the place where it had been torn by the monster the last time. Kasumi nodded.

"Yes, although we each have two or three sets of these." She giggled again. "I like sewing, and Ranma does tend to be hard on her clothes." Her husband looked embarrassed.

"Do you ever go out as a man, then?" Nabiki asked, raising her eyebrows. "Every time I've seen you outside this building you've been female." Ranma laughed.

"Yes, it does seem that way. I do go out as a male, but I have to admit not that much at the moment. I'm attending university as a woman as you know, which accounts for a lot of my day, and Yori takes up quite a lot of the rest, at least in the last few months. What with these demon attacks or whatever they are, and having to deal with various oddly dressed idiots prancing around the place breaking things, I'm been either Maiko or Yori almost all the time I've been out for weeks." She shrugged slightly. "Not really much of an issue, it's just what's happening right now. It will probably calm down sooner or later. These things seem to go in waves."

Glancing towards the balcony doors for a moment, Nabiki looked back to the black-haired woman and asked with a grin, "Planning on jumping off the balcony again? Or are you going to use the front door like a real person."

"I think, just to make you happy, we can go out the front door." Appearing amused Ranma pulled out a familiar bracelet. "But I think we'll be invisible. And you should put this on, it's probably not a good idea to associate Nabiki Tendo with Yori and Chou as well as Rika and Maiko." With an understanding nod Nabiki slipped the bracelet over her wrist, then held it out to be activated.

"This thing really is very useful," she noted, looking at it once more.

"Very much so. And no, you still can't keep it." The brunette looked both amused and disappointed once more. Laughing, Ranma led the way to the door to the hall. "Remember, outside it's Yori and Chou, OK?"

"I know."

"Just checking." They smiled at each other while Kasumi laughed. After stepping out of the elevator, Ranma stopped her sister-in-law. "OK, I'll cover you with my cloak. Stay close, no more than about a metre away, until I tell you, all right?" She nodded with slight trepidation, stepping closer. Noticing the black-haired girl grinned. "Don't worry, you won't feel it, but it produces a slightly odd change in the light. Ready?" A second later the ambient light did indeed change, darkening a little and changing in colour in a way that was very hard to pin down. Following the other woman from immediately behind she stepped out the main door. Quickly looking back she couldn't see any sign of her sister, just the door swinging closed.

'_Very strange indeed,_' she thought to herself as the pair of them walked down the street, the small number of pedestrians in the area looking right through them. 'Yori' occasionally stepped to the side to avoid someone coming directly at them, which made her have to be quick on her feet to stay close enough. After a couple of minutes they stepped into a narrow alley between two buildings and the light suddenly returned to normal. She looked around to see her sister fade into view behind them.

"That's an odd experience," she said. 'Yori' grinned.

"I know. You don't have to be completely quiet, by the way, it covers sounds as well, at least to a point. If you started screaming and shouting someone might hear something, but not much otherwise." She looked towards the street. "OK, we may as well head for the shopping area, see if anything interesting is going on. I want to talk to a couple of people in a bar there anyway." The three women walked back down the alley, emerging onto the residential road and turning left. As they walked 'Chou' pointed out sights of interest and gave her sister some of the history of the region.

Entering the more commercial part of the area they walked along a side street heading for the entertainment district. This section of Minato ward was set up a lot like a small town, within the larger city area, itself a part of the greater Tokyo metropolis. Very similar to Furinkan within Nerima but more affluent, there were a lot of trees and green areas, while the passing vehicles were mostly quite expensive ones like BMWs and other imports, or high end domestic models. Just as they reached the street along which were many of the bars, restaurants, and nightclubs of the area, most of which hadn't opened yet, 'Yori' swore slightly and shot off across the road, 'Chou' following her almost instantly. It happened so fast that Nabiki had barely noticed what was happening before it was over.

An expensive and shiny bright red open-topped sports car, driven by an obviously well off young man in his mid twenties accompanied by a good-looking young woman who appeared to be a foreigner, perhaps Italian from what she could see of her features, had narrowly missed running over two small children who had been crossing the road. 'Yori' and 'Chou' had grabbed them out of the way just in time and were now kneeling down comforting them as their worried parents ran across the road from the shop they'd all exited moments before. The driver of the car had panic-stopped far too late, having apparently driven through a traffic light that had been in the process of changing from yellow to red at the time, and was now sitting looking simultaneously relieved and annoyed. Nabiki walked over, having checked the passing traffic for more like him, approaching her disguised sister and sister-in-law.

"Are they OK?" she asked, looking at the young boy and girl, who seemed to be about ten or so. Obviously brother and sister, the boy was comforting the girl while looking at the two martial artists with wide eyes. 'Chou' nodded, standing up.

"Yes. Just a little frightened." She turned to glare at the young man in the sports car some fifteen metres further down the road, who noticed and went pale. "No thanks to that idiot. If we hadn't pulled them out of the way he'd have hit both of them." The children's parents ran up and grabbed both their offspring, hugging them with relief before turning to the three women. The man's eyes widened, he clearly knew who they were.

"Thank you so much, Yori, Chou. It's young people like you who make me very pleased to live here," he said, bowing to them both formally. 'Yori' bowed back, as did her wife.

"You're very welcome." She turned to glare at the driver of the car, who looked extremely worried by this point. He was close enough to have heard the names which he obviously recognised. Nabiki saw his lips form the words 'Oh, shit', before he put the car in gear and began to pull away.

"Oh no you don't, you bastard," 'Yori' growled, abruptly moving so fast she practically teleported from her position beside Nabiki to one behind the vehicle. Grabbing the rear of the car with one hand she lifted it clear of the ground effortlessly, making Nabiki's eyes widen slightly and everyone else who was watching stare in amazement. "Turn it off. Now." she said, no strain but considerable irritation in her voice. Looking over his shoulder with numb shock the man stared at her in disbelief. She lifted the car higher and shook it a little. "_Now_." He obeyed. 'Chou' walked over and reached inside the vehicle, removing the keys and dropping them to the ground. Putting the back end of the vehicle gently back down, 'Yori' moved around to stand beside her wife.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, driving like that? The light was going red. _That_ _means_ _**STOP!**_" She yelled the last word. He twitched violently, leaning away, a mix of worry and a kind of arrogant superciliousness on his face.

"It was yellow." She glared at him.

"It was yellow, yes, but that means it's going to go red. And there were two children right in front of you. You nearly hit them, which would have severely injured or even killed them. I don't like people who drive like that, especially around here, _especially_ when it involves small children." He was beginning to look annoyed again.

"Look, I slowed down. They should have got out of the way." 'Yori' studied him with irritation, but it was 'Chou' who reached out and grabbed him by the shirt, lifting him easily to eye level.

Raising her other hand she slapped his face quite hard, then did it again. Continuing to slap him on either cheek, making his face go red as his head jerked from side to side, she began speaking. "OK, think of it like this," she said conversationally, while 'Yori' watched with dark amusement and Nabiki stared, slightly shocked but also rather impressed, "do you want me to _slow down_, or do you want me to _stop_?" She kept hitting him, not hard enough to cause damage but more than hard enough to hurt.

"Stop. _Stop!_ Please stop," the man gasped out with a pained and embarrassed tone in his voice. By now there were a couple of dozen people watching, many of whom were grinning. Nabiki noticed that one of the bystanders was a police officer, who was wearing the widest grin of them all. 'Chou' dropped the driver back into his seat, then leaned down.

"Now you understand the difference? Slow down and stop aren't the same thing?" He nodded, frightened and in some pain. His companion was watching him with what had become mild contempt from the shock and fright of earlier. "So, next time, when you see a yellow light, what do you do?" Nabiki's sister asked curiously.

"I stop," he said, staring at her like a mouse staring at a hungry owl. She nodded, satisfied.

"Good. Please remember this in future." She was very polite but he could see something in her eyes that made him lean away again. The blonde woman stepped back to stand beside her husband. 'Yori' looked proud and patted her wife on the shoulder. Turning to look at the policeman who was still grinning, she waved to him.

"Corporal Otani? Would you also like to have a word with this person?" The officer walked over while pulling out a notebook. He nodded to both martial artists, then turned to the driver, a professionally blank expression replacing the grin.

"Hello, Sir. Name, please?" Leaving the now very worried driver to the tender mercies of local law enforcement, the two women walked back to Nabiki, who was standing beside the children and their parents. A ripple of applause went through the crowd, some of whom came over to briefly talk to either 'Yori' or 'Chou'. A minute or so later they dispersed and the street life went back to normal, while in the background the driver was being politely given a very hard time by Corporal Otani, who was by this point administering a breath test. The driver's companion had exited the car and was standing on the pavement calling a taxi on her cell-phone while looking at the man with thinly veiled anger.

Nabiki snickered. "That was mean." 'Chou' looked at her mildly.

"Possibly, but it seemed to work." She shook her head. "Driving like that is very irresponsible. It annoys me." Her sister was smiling at her, she'd never have believed the normally very gentle Kasumi to be capable of such things. Finding that she was both gave her a bit of a shock and quite pleased her at the same time. The woman was correct, it was very likely that the man would remember his lesson. Casting a glance in his direction the middle Tendo could see the fellow seemed to be sincerely regretting coming anywhere near the district by now. Corporal Otani appeared to be enjoying himself if his expression was anything to go by. A number of pedestrians were still standing around watching, a couple of them helpfully pointing out that one of the vehicle's rear lights seemed to be broken.

"Say thanks to Yori and Chou, children," said the father, standing with a hand on the shoulder of each of his offspring. They looked up at the two women with interest. The little girl had stopped crying and was staring at both of them with a fascinated expression.

"Thank you Miss Yori. Thank you Miss Chou," they obediently chorused. 'Yori' grinned at them, bowing once more.

"It's our pleasure, kids," she said with a chuckle. 'Chou' smiled warmly at them.

"Remember to look both ways next time, OK?" she asked. They nodded. Turning to their parents she transferred the smile to them, amusing Nabiki with how they seemed to almost fall in love with her. "You have lovely children." Glancing at her husband, she added, "We have to go now, but it was nice meeting you." The two martial artists nodded politely and resumed their travels, Nabiki walking alongside her sister. Behind them the family watched for a moment with pleased expressions before going about their business.

When they were safely away, Nabiki said quietly, "You certainly know how to make a good impression by the looks of it. Do you know all the names of the local cops?" 'Yori' grinned with a nod.

"Pretty much. Over the last couple of years we've bumped into most of them at one point or another. At first they were a bit standoffish, some of the magical girl groups are very rude and dismissive to the police. I think that's disrespectful, most of them may not be able to do what we can, but that doesn't make them any less worthy of respect. They do a difficult job for not a huge amount of pay. We both have gone out of our way to be as helpful as we can." She shrugged. "It seems to have worked. They let us get away with all sorts of things that they probably shouldn't, we try to let them take the credit. Neither one of us wants to steal their thunder."

'Chou' added, "Setting up the reparations fund and helping out in the community seems to have made a generally good impression. As has keeping in the background as much as possible. A lot of that was because we were and still are trying to keep a low profile, but it seems to impress people that we're not making a fuss about what we do. We just try to help. For instance, Yori stopping fights in the nightclubs seems to please the police since they don't have lots of paperwork to deal with, people seldom get hurt much, and they can concentrate on more important things than drunken brawls. The bouncers like it as well, they have less risk."

Curiously Nabiki asked, "Do the police ever actually _ask_ you for help?" 'Yori' nodded again.

"Sometimes. There have been a few incidents where they've call me or both of us in because they ran into something they couldn't easily handle and thought it was the safest thing to do. I suspect they don't mention that to their superiors outside the immediate area, but I may be wrong. Minato is sort of used to young women with strange abilities, and I've certainly noticed that police outside the vicinity seem to have been very helpful and polite recently, when we've had to intervene. Maybe they've had some good reports about us?" Nabiki shook her head in amusement.

"Well, there have been at least two new broadcasts featuring you two on TV recently, the reporters apparently have had some quite nice things to say about your reputations." 'Yori' looked gratified.

"Yes, that's kind of pleasing." She frowned a little. "I'd prefer not to be on the news at all, but it seems difficult to avoid at the moment what with these damn whatevers attacking. If we _have_ to be mentioned I'm certainly happier to have it be in good terms rather than otherwise."

"You'll be having action figures of you sold soon," Nabiki giggled. 'Yori' grinned.

"They've tried. We shut them down. Chou made sure we got all the relevant protections and trademarks on our likenesses, images, all that sort of thing properly registered right at the beginning, just in case. It was a good idea. Our lawyer has had to send several cease and desist letters in the last year." Her sister in law looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"You really _did_ think of everything." She snickered. "Bit of a pity, though. I could give Akane a Chou action figure for Christmas, or maybe a Yori one. She likes collecting magical girl stuff. And it would be very funny, she'd never know the big joke." 'Yori' burst out laughing. 'Chou' looked slightly disapproving.

"That's not very nice, Nabiki. You shouldn't make fun of your sister like that." After a few more steps she smiled a little. "But, if you really want to, I do have a few dolls of us that one local company made but never sold before we stopped them a few months ago. They were handed over in return for us not taking it any further. You can have a couple." Nabiki nearly stumbled on the pavement, staring at her sister with surprise.

"Really?" She laughed. "Yes, please. That would be great." After a moment's thought, she added slyly, "Shampoo might like a set as well." 'Yori' began giggling helplessly. "Are they any good?" the middle sister asked. Her disguised sibling looked amused.

"Actually, yes, they're very high quality. If we ever decided to let commercial production start on that sort of thing I think we'd let them do it, their product was much better than anybody else could produce."

The three carried on walking, stopping at a few places for either 'Yori' or 'Chou' to have words with various people, including bouncers, shop-keepers, a few more policemen, and the odd passer-by. Nabiki was noticing a common theme of considerable respect and indeed fondness from the various inhabitants of this district towards the two women. It seemed that their reputation was very solidly assured. In return they seemed to know the names of dozens of people from many different walks of life, not to mention things about their lives that made it clear that these were more than just nodding acquaintances. The brunette was very impressed. Her sister and Ranma had obviously integrated themselves into the community pretty well.

There were a couple of other places where they intervened. At one point 'Yori' casually grabbed a purse-snatcher as he ran past after exercising his trade, almost without looking. She picked him up by the back of his coat and carried him along the road like a struggling item of luggage, apparently not noticing his ineffective attempts to escape, relieving him of the purse and handing it back to the older woman who he'd stolen it from. Stopping to talk to her briefly, she shook the minor criminal until his teeth rattled and he stopped wriggling. After making sure the woman was otherwise unhurt she bid her a cheery farewell, then carried on towards a pair of police officers who watched her approach with amusement having seen much of the small drama. Greeting them by name she handed over her captive who glared at her, until she gave him a dark look that made him immediately hide behind one of the officers. They smirked and placed him under arrest which for some odd reason seemed to make him feel relieved.

Grinning, Nabiki watch all this with extreme amusement. Half an hour later 'Chou' suddenly stopped recounting a story she had been telling her sister, staring at a three story scaffolding array that was against the front of a building a little further along the road. Looking at her curiously Nabiki wondered what she'd noticed. Following her sister's gaze she sucked in a breath as she saw one of the workers on the top of the scaffolding teetering on the edge, waving his arms, obviously having overreached himself and on the verge of falling. Her currently blonde sister dashed off at high speed, leaping some six or seven metres into the air to land gracefully on the scaffolding beside the man then grabbing him in one hand and the metal structure with the other. The man, who outweighed her by at least twice stopped his imminent plunge as if he'd been nailed in place. Carefully easing him back onto the wooden boards laid over the framework she waited until he'd re-established his balance, then talked to him for a moment.

He stared at her wide-eyed for a few seconds, obviously shocked and scared, then suddenly hugged her. His two colleagues who had seen him about to fall but were too far away to have done anything walked carefully along the scaffolding and thanked her as well. Shaking their hands, she stepped off the edge of the scaffolding and dropped lightly to the ground where her female husband and sister were waiting, looking up at her. The men watched with open surprise mixed with respect. Waving up at them, she rejoined her companions. Nabiki gaped a little. While she had become accustomed, years ago, to seeing Ranma casually jump on and off two or three story buildings as if they were a low kerb, watching her elder sister do it was something entirely different. Even with the memories of the first, and hopefully last, roof-hopping trip through the night, seeing it in broad daylight was impressive.

"Holy crap. That was... pretty damn amazing, sis." 'Chou' smiled at her, her eyes twinkling.

"Thanks. It's fun as well." They moved along, heading in a direction that would take them back to the apartment building in twenty minutes or so.

"Do you have this much excitement every time you come out?" her sister asked. The blonde woman shook her head with a smile.

"Not all the time, but it's surprising how many things can go wrong in a busy area like this. There are thousands of people out in the streets, sometimes they have accidents. It was just luck I spotted that poor man in time." 'Yori' snickered.

"My purse snatcher must have been from out of town. It's pretty safe around here now, I got annoyed at all the petty theft when we first moved in and cracked down quite hard on it. This place doesn't have much crime now. There hasn't been a mugging in over a year, the last guy must have spread some interesting stories when he got out of jail." Her wife gave her a long-suffering look.

"You may have been slightly overenthusiastic with him. Dangling him off the top of the university clock tower by his ankle until he promised to give up a life of crime could possibly be considered excessive." 'Yori' laughed, as did Nabiki.

"Excessive, I don't know, but effective, definitely. He apparently found religion after that. Mind you, carrying him up the outside of the tower might have helped." She shrugged. "It was only about thirty metres. I'd have caught him before he hit the ground even if I _had_ dropped him."

"Did _he_ know that?" 'Chou' glanced at her with a faint smile, while her sister giggled.

"Well... I didn't actually _say_ it." Nabiki giggled again. 'Chou' sighed a little, watching her husband walk along with an affectionate expression. "Anyway, what about the one you caught? You broke both his arms."

"He had a gun. You know I don't like guns. _And_ he fired it at me." Nabiki listened, horrified.

"You caught the bullet, didn't you? Then you made him swallow it. _Then_ you broke both his arms." 'Yori' was grinning widely by now. Nabiki had stopped and was looking at the illusory form of her sister as if she'd never seen her before.

"I healed them up when the police came to take him away." 'Chou' seemed mildly defensive. 'Yori' laughed.

"True, but you waited for half an hour before you called the Sergeant. That guy literally pissed himself you were glaring at him so nastily."

"While _you_ were rolling around on the ground laughing your head off." Her wife crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. Nabiki was moving her gaze between them like someone at a particularly spirited tennis match.

"It was really funny. Especially when you started growing huge fangs and your eyes were glowing red." 'Chou' smiled a little at the memory.

"He was a nasty little man who gives the Yakuza a bad name. Even _they_ don't like people waving guns around." This statement nearly made her sister choke, unsure whether she should laugh or look appalled. In the end she compromised and did both. 'Chou' looked at her with amusement, realising why. "I know some very nice Yakuza people. They were not at all happy with that horrible person." 'Yori' shrugged, nodding.

"It's true. He got a visit from his 'lawyer' in the police station and then pleaded guilty to an awful lot of crimes. He'll be in jail for years." She smirked. "It meant I didn't have to persuade him to do the right thing myself. The Oyabun was extremely angry."

"You know some very odd people," Nabiki commented, surprised yet again despite herself. Both the other women smiled a little.

"Funny, that's what people tell _them_. No idea why." 'Yori' chortled at the expression on her sister in law's face as they resumed walking.

"Can you really catch a bullet?" Nabiki asked with awe in her voice. 'Yori' nodded.

"They don't move all _that_ fast, at least from a 9mm hand gun. Hell, I can throw something faster than the muzzle velocity of one of those things. Even Akane could probably catch one if she was ready for it. It would just bounce off Ryoga, he might not even notice. I've hit him a damn sight harder than any bullet could, it's like hitting a half-metre thick armour plate. He's pretty tough." Nabiki listened with amazement.

"_Akane_ could catch a bullet?"

"Probably. She's certainly fast enough when she gets worked up. Coordinated enough, that's more of a problem. Strong enough, definitely." It was something to think about. She had no reason not to believe the martial artist, in fact if anyone would know it would be her.

"What would happen if she missed?" 'Yori' shrugged a little.

"I'm not sure. Something from a pistol would probably hurt like a bastard but I doubt it would do serious damage. While she doesn't have very good ki _control_, she still has quite a lot of _power_. Nothing remotely approaching what I have, or Chou, or the ghoul and the pervert. Or Ryoga, for that matter. She's right down the bottom of the scale as far as the usual suspects go, but that's still a hell of a lot more than the average man in the street, or even the average martial artist. Just look at how much trouble the hospital has in putting her down for even a few minutes. To be honest I'm a little surprised that the dart gun works, it wouldn't on most of the others or us." She shook her head.

"Yet more proof she's not been applying herself properly." Nabiki stared, then laughed a little nervously.

"Frankly I'm glad that she hasn't. If she was tougher and still had the problems she has at the moment she'd be damn near unstoppable."

"True." They all looked at each other, thinking about what that would be like, then simultaneously shuddered a bit.


	19. Chapter 19

Arriving near the apartment they ducked into another alley, went invisible, and re-entered the building. Back in the living room both Ranma and her wife reverted to their normal appearances. "Coffee?" Kasumi asked. Both the others nodded.

"It seems that we drink a lot of coffee, you know." Nabiki smiled. Her sister laughed.

"We practically run on it at times." She disappeared into the kitchen while Nabiki and Ranma sat. Looking at each other, they smiled.

"That was fun," Nabiki said, removing the silver bracelet and handing it to her companion who accepted it with a nod of thanks.

"I thought you might enjoy it. Like Kas said, things don't get exciting every time but pretty often there's something interesting going on."

"That bit with the car was hysterical. Kasumi slapping him over and over, while politely asking him questions..." Nabiki shook her head, grinning widely. "I'd never have thought she'd do something like that. You've corrupted my sister." The red-head looked amused.

"It didn't take much effort. In my defence that wasn't the intention, but she took to this wandering martial artist and protector of the community deal like a particularly dangerous duck to water." The brunette Tendo laughed.

"I'm very impressed with how well you seem to fit in around here. There are a lot of people who look like they really respect and like you two." Ranma sighed a little, leaning back and putting her feet on the table.

"I know. It's weird, back in Nerima I did much the same thing, but for some reason there weren't a lot of people who even seemed to notice. Not that I was doing it to be noticed in the first place, but still... It's a little odd." Nabiki studied her.

"You know, I did hear various things about that over the last few years, when I was looking for you guys. I talked to quite a few people, some of whom I now know were your agents," she cast the other woman a dark look which merely caused her to smile slightly, "and there were quite a number of nice things said about you. You may not have had many if any friends other than Kasumi while you were there, but I assure you there were quite a few people who respected you a lot." She giggled for a moment. "Oddly enough, a fair few of them were cops. There were some who knew about your curse, as did a lot of the older people around Furinkan, but most of the rest thought there were two of you, possibly brother and sister." Ranma laughed.

"That much I was aware of. I didn't go out of my way to correct them, mainly because it was either too much work or just too embarrassing."

"I can understand that," Nabiki said with a smile, "but my point is that you were appreciated for the good you did as much as you and the others were considered nuisances for all the damage. In fact you were probably on balance thought more highly of than otherwise, certainly more so than any of the rest. One comment I heard was that you were much more professional in your outlook, you took care to minimise the damage and tried to put a stop to the fights as fast as possible." Ranma appeared both surprised and pleased by this.

"Hmm. Interesting. I wish someone had told me at the time, it would have made me a bit happier." She shrugged a bit. "Doesn't really matter I suppose, not in the long run." Kasumi returned with coffee for all three, handing out the mugs to each woman. Sitting beside her sister she glanced at her husband.

"Feet, dear." Ranma looked embarrassed and took her feet off the coffee table, while Nabiki snickered.

"Sorry."

"Got her well trained, sis," the middle Tendo said with laughter in her voice. Her sister looked amused and nodded while the red-head shot her a dark look.

"It's mutual. She trained me as a martial artist, I domesticated her and made her fit to live indoors." Nabiki collapsed in laughter. Ranma grunted in mild annoyance and crossed her arms, watching them both as they giggled. Standing she pulled her braid around and removed the blue bow, dropping it on the table.

"I'm going to change and have a quick shower. We'll need to leave pretty soon. Kas, can I have the bag? Or should I pick something else?" Her wife smiled at her, retrieving the bag she'd stashed away earlier in her ki pocket and handing it to the red-head.

"No, I think that outfit is a nice one. Can you put mine on the bed?" Ranma nodded, heading towards the bedroom. Nabiki watched her go then turned to her sister.

"What's the deal with the hair?" she asked curiously. "When I came here the first time, Ranma said it was because she was going out as Yori and it was too much trouble to keep changing it. Does she intend to keep it like that permanently?" Kasumi grinned.

"To be honest I think she's rather fond of it," the older woman said softly. "It's become a signature look for Yori, and Maiko as well. It took some time to grow it so long like that even with some ki based help, she doesn't seem to want to bother again. When she's male he doesn't care around the house, and outside, the illusion spell takes care of it. Since she's spending so much time female at the moment for various reasons, it's just easier to leave it like that." Kasumi giggled a little. "I like braiding it for her. It suits her, I think." Nabiki agreed with a smile.

"I guess it's one more thing to distinguish her from the old Ranma, which is probably a good idea as well. You're right, it does suit her face very well both as Ranma and as Yori." After a seconds thought she asked, "don't you worry about it possibly connecting Yori and Maiko, having identical, pretty unusual hairstyles?" Her sister laughed a bit.

"Funnily enough, some time ago someone did kind of make that connection. She completely threw them off with a very convincing fan-girl act, claiming that she really looked up to Yori and wanted to copy her hairstyle. It was so good that several other students at the university now have the same style, complete with the bow at the end. Some of them are even taking up martial arts." Nabiki stared for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Oh, god, that's hysterical. Ranma Saotome, fashion trendsetter. I'd never have believed it!" Both sisters were giggling hysterically when Ranma as 'Maiko' came out of the bedroom and looked curiously at them. Nabiki inspected her and grinned.

"Very nice. Who picked out the clothes, you or my sister?" 'Maiko' looked down at herself with a smile.

"It was a joint effort. Neither one of us goes in much for fancy clothes, but sometimes you need to look good." She was wearing a silk top in dark blue, contrasting with the new red bow on her braid, held in at the waist by a silver belt that looked like very fine chain mail. A skirt, more of a kilt in some ways, that came to just above the knee, in fine wool dyed a deep indigo that became a few shades lighter towards the bottom moved around her legs as she walked around. Her footwear was a pair of calf-length boots in soft brown leather, which had a two centimetre heel. Overall the effect was a restrained and mature sort of feminine style, one that looked very nice in the middle Tendo's opinion.

"I think that's the most female-looking clothing I've ever seen you voluntarily wear. A skirt? I never thought I'd see the day." The young woman smiled again.

"I know. Kas took some time persuading me. I don't particularly like skirts or dresses, but I have to admit this one looks pretty nice." She shrugged. "I can live with it. Kas likes it." Her wife nodded with a smile.

"It looks very nice, Ranma. I told you it would. OK, my turn in the shower, then we can leave. Nabiki, do you want to freshen up?" Her sister nodded as well. Both Tendos went off to different bathrooms while Ranma cleared away the coffee cups and tidied the kitchen. When they came back, Nabiki glanced at the dark yellow silk dress Kasumi, or 'Rika', was wearing and laughed.

"I'm starting to feel under-dressed here."

"There's a nice top in my closet you can borrow if you'd like, Nabiki. The dark red one, it should go with the rest of your outfit." The brunette smiled.

"Thanks, sis." She quickly changed, returning to the living room. "Right, I'm ready. Shall we go?"

'Maiko' was on the phone calling for a taxi. Thanking the dispatcher she put it back, then turned to the others. "He'll be outside in about ten minutes." The three left the apartment and went down in the elevator, waiting inside the front door until the taxi arrived. Nabiki looked interested, turning to 'Maiko'.

"You don't bother hiding where you live when you're using this persona?" she asked curiously.

"No. 'Maiko' in on record as living here as is 'Rika'. We need somewhere to get our mail if nothing else. All the other personae have different addresses if they need one at all. We use post office boxes, rented accommodation, that sort of thing."

"What about Yori? Does she get mail?" 'Maiko' smiled.

"Oh, yes, quite a lot of it. Fan mail, offers of marriage, requests for interviews, all sorts of things. They all go to our lawyers, who filter out the worst bits, scan it all, and email it to a secure account. 'Chou' gets at least as much." Nabiki laughed.

"Offers of marriage? Sounds like you haven't escaped some of the more irritating parts of Neriman life then." The other brunette shook her head with considerable amusement.

"It's nothing like as bad, no one is accosting me in the street and professing their undying love in terrible Shakespearean dialogue." Nabiki snickered. "And I don't have parents forcing or selling me into engagements left, right, and centre. That part I don't miss at all." She shuddered a little.

"The taxi is here," 'Rika' observed, opening the door and signalling to the driver who pulled over a few metres down the road. They exited the building, 'Maiko' making sure the door closed and locked behind them, then climbed into the taxi. 'Rika' gave the driver, who greeted her by name, the address of the restaurant and they settled back, chatting about inconsequentials. The driver, an elderly man in his late sixties, glanced in his mirror every now and then, smiling at the three beautiful young women in the back of his car.

Driving down a street Nabiki recognised a couple of minutes into the trip the driver pointed out the scaffolding on which 'Chou' had saved the worker's life earlier. The men were now gone, presumably having finished for the day. "Did you hear? Those two magical girls Yori and Chou were out around here a couple of hours ago, Chou saved a guy from falling off that thing. I heard she jumped right on top of it from the ground and grabbed him just before he fell." The old man shook his head in wonder. "It's incredible what those two can do. I saw the other one, Yori, dealing with both a demon and another magical girl a few months ago, she's unbelievable. I studied Akido and Karate when I was younger, pretty good at it as well, but compared to her and her friend?" He sighed. "Not even close. So far from close it's almost depressing."

"What do you think of them?" Nabiki asked, glancing sidelong at 'Maiko' who was listening with interest while appearing to be watching the scenery go past. The driver laughed.

"You don't live around here, do you, Miss?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No, I'm from Nerima. I'm just here visiting my friends."

"Nerima?" he queried, glancing at her in the mirror. "You're probably used to martial artists all over the place there from what I hear. A friend of mine lived there for years, he said it got pretty wild especially around Furinkan."

"True enough. Not as much now as a few years ago, but yes, it's a fairly weird place."

"I can imagine. Minato is very strange as well. We have so many magical girls running around here it's crazy. The thing you have to understand, though, is that Yori and Chou are different. They're polite, respectful, extremely skilled, and best of all, careful. People really appreciate that. They are honourable people. A lot of the magical girls, they're very hard on the community. Oh yes, they do stop some unpleasant things from happening but they cause a lot of damage in the process." He smiled at her in the mirror. "Sometimes they're worse than the thing they're dealing with. It was like that around here. The girls would take out the big nasty demon, but wreck half a street in the process and ignore everything else."

"So these two, Yori and Chou, they're not like that?" Nabiki probed his opinions partly to amuse herself and the others, partly out of genuine curiosity for what an outside agent would think. The driver laughed again.

"No, not at all. They're even better at dealing with the weirdness than almost all of the other groups, they have a lot of power, but they also have restraint and common sense. Some of these other girls will dive in and use a huge amount of force on something that Yori, for example, will deal with in a few minutes, sometimes just by persuading it to leave." Nabiki feigned surprise.

"What, she talks to them, demons, I mean?"

"Yes. I know it sound strange, even for Minato, but I've heard a lot of stories. Apparently even the demons respect her, assuming they're not terrified of her that is. More than once some monstrosity from another world has come charging into the community, taken one look at her glaring at it, and run away again." He chuckled. "She has a _very_ scary glare." Slowing for a set of traffic lights he looked both ways, then turned left. "She's more than happy to resolve a problem just by talking it out. Violence is usually a last resort. Mind you, with her and Chou, when the violence happens, it happens pretty efficiently. Their fights don't usually last long. They know an awful lot about combat, a lot more than most of the others. Not to mention their magical powers which are very impressive as well."

Nabiki grinned. The man sounded like he had an almost proprietary interest in them. "Someone told me that Yori doesn't like being called a magical girl." The driver laughed again, glancing over his shoulder.

"Yes, I've heard that as well. She likes to think of herself as a martial artist. It's true, she obviously knows more about martial arts than anyone else I've ever seen except for her friend, but with all those powers as well she's as much a magical girl as any of them." He grinned. "Don't say that to her face, though, she tends to shout." Nabiki giggled.

"So I've heard. She was on TV recently shouting at some other magical girls." He nodded, looking amused.

"I saw that. It was hysterical. I almost felt sorry for them, they had no idea what to do except stand there looking worried while she ripped into them. The way she keeps the other groups in line and makes them clear up after themselves is one of the things that people really respect. People in our community are proud of them, they show everyone how it should be done. They're _our_ girls and we like and trust them." Meeting her eyes in the rear-view mirror he seemed to be telling the truth. "One of the things people really do appreciate is that they help out with other things than just some damn demon attack. They've saved lives, like today with Chou and that fellow who nearly fell, crime has dropped like a stone since they arrived, even the police like them. Yori has even gone up a tree after a cat for a little girl once, and I've heard she doesn't like cats at all." Nabiki glanced at 'Maiko' who rolled her eyes with a slight smile.

"They sound like good people."

"They are. Pretty much everyone who lives in the area is happy to have them here." He fell silent, thinking about something with a smile on his face, while competently weaving his way through increasingly heavy traffic as they headed for the waterfront. Nabiki looked at her sister who had been listening with an amused expression, then at 'Maiko', who looked slightly embarrassed. Giggling again she settled in for the rest of the journey. Some twenty minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. "Here you go ladies." The driver turned off the meter, while 'Rika' produced the relevant sum with a generous tip. Handing it over with a smile she opened the door.

"Thank you, Miss Nygaard. Have a nice evening." Once they were all out he waved, then pulled back onto the road. Watching the taxi drive off Nabiki snickered.

"Well, you have at least one fan, you guys. He seems very taken with Yori and Chou. From what he says you have a pretty high community approval rating." 'Maiko' was both amused and pleased.

"It's nice to know that normal people think well of us."

"From what he was saying, and the way he was saying it, it's more than just thinking well of you. He genuinely respects you. Sounds like quite a few people do."

'Rika' smiled. "We've had thank-you letters in the past, but he went into a lot more detail than I've heard before." They entered the restaurant, approaching the Maître-de who greeted them pleasantly.

"Hello, Miss Nygaard, Miss Nakahara, it's nice to see you again. Your table is ready, if you'll follow me please?" He led them to a table with a view out over Tokyo bay, seating all three women quickly and efficiently. A waiter was waved over, menus handed out, and he went back to his post. They ordered drinks, 'Maiko' as usual having a soft drink and the other two sharing a bottle of wine. Nabiki read her menu with interest. The food was indeed a mix of French and Thai cuisine, with many of the dishes apparently a combination. Red curry with escargot caught her eye and she winced. "That's going a little _too_ far, I think," she muttered. 'Maiko' looked over at her, so she pointed it out.

"Umm. No, I think not." The other brunette looked slightly green. Once they had decided on their orders 'Rika' looked around and caught the eye of the waiter who had faded into the background in a very effective way. Once he'd taken their order he bowed slightly and left again.

Looking around at the large room Nabiki raised her eyebrows. "This looks like a very high-end place." 'Rika' smiled.

"It is quite expensive. The food is amazing though, it's well worth it, and the service is first rate. The view is nice as well." The three talked for a while, chatting about their respective university experiences, then came back inevitably to the subject of Akane. The conversation paused while the food was served, but resumed once they were eating. "I'm not happy about what you've told us about the poor girl," 'Rika' commented. "It doesn't sound like she's improving as much as we could hope for. Do you think perhaps a different type of therapy might help?" Nabiki shrugged a little, eating with considerable enjoyment. Her sister was right, the food was remarkably good. She'd have to come back some time. The prices on the menus were high but not unreasonably so.

"I don't know. Probably not. She's pretty set in her ways, as self destructive as they are." She chuckled somewhat unhappily. "Or as destructive to other things as well. I'm glad that's happening at the hospital at the moment, it's given us a chance to get the house fixed up." Pausing for a couple of mouthfuls she chewed with appreciation while thinking. "If we'd been able to get her to this sort of help when she was younger, before it all built up so much, maybe it would have worked better. It still _might_ work, she's only been going for about three or four months now. It might take years."

"How much improvement has there been?" 'Maiko' asked curiously, taking a sip of her lemonade.

"It's difficult to say exactly. I've noticed a difference, and our father says the same thing. But it's not the sort of thing you can put a number to. She doesn't get angry as easily, which is good, but if you _do_ manage to set her off she's as bad as ever." The brunette laughed. "Perhaps I should see if we can get a dart gun for home. Just in case." 'Rika' looked disapproving while 'Maiko' chuckled.

"I think there may be some regulations that would make that a bit difficult," the tall blonde woman said.

"True, I guess. Oh well, it was just a thought." Sighing, Nabiki sipped some wine then refilled her glass and her sister's. "It's so damn frustrating, though. The first few weeks were going very well. Everyone could see an improvement, it was slow but it was there. But then..." She shrugged again. "It just kind of tailed off. Akane is as frustrated as anyone about it, to give her due credit she really does want to overcome this."

"Poor Akane. I wish there was something we could do to help."

"You've already helped a lot. Even giving me the idea, and some insight into how to persuade her to go to therapy in the first place." Nabiki smiled. "The '_yell a lot and don't take no for an answer_' technique is a powerful one." 'Maiko' laughed.

"Indeed it is. Please don't use it for evil." They all grinned. After a few more mouthfuls, she said, "I can ask around at the university if anyone there has any ideas on treating severe anger and self-control issues. It's possible that there are some treatments that haven't made it into the mainstream that would be more effective than what she's having at the moment." Nabiki nodded gratefully.

"Thank you. Anything you can find out would be helpful." She looked thoughtfully at the other woman. "I'm a bit surprised you'd help like that." 'Maiko' raised an eyebrow enquiringly.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, despite what you said about holding grudges, in some ways it sometimes seems you do still have, ah, unresolved feelings I suppose is how people would describe it, towards a lot of the people back home." She smiled at the other woman, adding hastily, "Not that I don't understand why you would. If anyone has the right to feel that way, you do, after what everyone did to you for so long." She looked at her sister for a moment. "Both of you." 'Maiko' laughed gently.

"Oh, I have feelings, all right." She was silent for a moment while the other two glanced at each other then back to her. "It's...," she trailed off, trying to think how to explain it. "I don't think it's a grudge, not like you mean. More a hearty dislike based on experience. I don't really wish any of them ill, not any more. I did for a while but I came to realise, with some help," she glanced at her wife with a smile, "that there was no real reason for it any more. Both of us have moved on, there really isn't much any of them can do to us any more. We both took control of our own lives back, and intend to keep it." She paused for a drink of lemonade. "Ryoga, as the obvious example, _does_ hold a grudge in the true sense of the word. He is completely obsessive in his pursuit of revenge for any slights he rightly or wrongly believes I did to him. That obsession has ruined his life. His curse, a lot of the problems he had before we left, and what happened when Akane found out, all of that can be put down to him coming after me regardless of how stupid it was."

She shook her head sadly. "He's a pretty intelligent guy, a remarkably good mostly self-taught martial artist, and in many ways an honourable man. But on top of that, he's subject to petty jealousy, sudden anger, attacks of depression, you name it. The depression may be a reason for a lot of the rest, I suppose, but his own actions have more or less destroyed any hope of happiness he could have, at least with Akane. Looking back on it, I certainly didn't help at times, I did some things I now regret to him, but in my own defence quite a lot of those were in retaliation for something he did to me. Childish, but we _were_ children." Nabiki listened, remembering some of what the woman was talking about. She'd seen enough of the interactions between the two to know it was basically true.

Ranma had always tended to fall into the trap of ego, especially when confronted by Ryoga, but it was a two-way street. The part time pig had a massive ego of his own, in most respects far bigger than Ranma had as a teenager and for less reason. He'd certainly done some very dishonourable things to the martial artist, many of them revolving around the youngest Tendo girl with whom he was completely obsessed. Using Ranma's own sense of honour against him so many times was a particularly petty thing to do. She wasn't sorry that the guy had finally got the crap kicked out of him, in her opinion he had richly deserved it, but she was sorry for the effect it had had on her sister.

'Maiko' continued, "I don't hate him, even after what he did, but I don't particularly like him as a person. I'll admit that he helped me several times when it was really needed, and for that I'm grateful, but I'm also in no hurry to see him again. The same is true of most of the others. Akane put me through hell, and although I really did love her for a while, that's long dead. I don't want to see her hurt, even so. If we can help her I'm more than happy to do so, even if I don't want to meet her again. The same goes for most of the others. Pop is after all my father and the whole reason I'm a martial artist in the first place, but there's no denying the fact that he's not a good person. I love him as a father, but don't like him as a man, if that makes any sense."

Nabiki nodded slowly, understanding. She had felt similar things about her own father at several times during her life, for less reason than Ranma had. Loving and liking were certainly not necessarily synonymous.

"I hope I'm explaining this right. It's not easy to put into words, but it helps me think about it myself."

"You're making sense." The middle Tendo woman grinned at her sister-in-law. "And a few years ago I'd never have believed I'd say that about you."

"Ha bloody ha," the other woman said with a smile of her own, as her wife giggled. "And thanks." She shrugged. "No one is perfect, least of all me. I don't _think_ I'm holding grudges, I certainly try not to, but there's no getting past the fact that the way people treat you affects the way you feel about them a long time after the act itself. Quite a few people back there did some pretty shitty things to me, and while I don't dwell on it, it left me feeling like they were people I didn't want to see again. And, the nice thing is, I don't have to. I have a life I'm happy with, the best parts of the old one are still here, the new parts are mostly good, but above everything else no one is pushing me in a direction I hate." She laughed. "If I was like Ryoga in the grudge-holding area, I'd track him down and shout, '_Prepare to die, Ryoga Hibiki!_' Or challenge Kuno to a sword fight." Nabiki giggled.

"_That_ I'd pay money to see."

"It wouldn't last long, that's for sure," 'Maiko' said with a grin.

"Do you ever think of going back and seeing the place again? You certainly wouldn't be recognised." 'Maiko' looked at 'Rika' with a slight smile. Nabiki's sister turned to her.

"As I said the night you found us, we did go back a couple of times. That was about a year after we left, just to see what had happened. A sort of morbid curiosity mixed with nostalgia, I suppose. We simply couldn't risk any possibility of direct contact so we watched from a distance. It was mostly my idea, I wanted to see my family again if only from the outside." She fell silent with a slightly sad and introspective expression. 'Maiko' looked at her with compassion and picked up the conversation.

"We've talked about going back again several times since then. When you came, it rekindled a certain amount of curiosity, I'll admit. We've discussed it, it seems very unlikely that there's any real risk now, but various things have made it difficult. I think we probably will visit at some point, though." Nabiki nodded slowly.

"Who would you be going as?" she asked curiously. 'Maiko' grinned, shrugging.

"No idea. We have a lot of choices even with established IDs. Plus we could always make new ones just for that." A sudden thought struck Nabiki and she looked around with mild worry.

"I just thought of something, is it a good idea to talk about all this stuff in public like this?" 'Maiko' laughed.

"Took you long enough to think about that." Nabiki frowned, slightly insulted. "No, it's not a problem. We're both using a very mild form of the cloaking technique, it makes us sort of fade into the background a little from the point of view of most people. It also screws up listening devices. It's sort of a habit when we're out. It's something Happosai came up with and showed us, it's much less power intensive than the invisibility technique. You wouldn't want to be invisible in a restaurant anyway, you'd never get served!" Nabiki laughed, impressed. "We kind of leave a hole in it as far as the staff are concerned, or at least turn it down a bit, so they know we're here. Otherwise they'd pretty much forget about us. But almost anyone else will just look right past us and won't hear anything either unless you really shout or directly draw their attention. Watch." She picked up a knife and dropped it on the floor where it landed with a loud tinkling sound. Looking around Nabiki noticed that none of the diners in the vicinity seemed to notice at all, no one so much as flinched. As 'Maiko' picked the knife up and put it back on the table the brunette grinned.

"That's damn useful."

'Maiko' nodded with a smile. "I know. It's not as secure as the invisibility method but we can keep it going without even thinking about it. No one is going to overhear us unless we want them to or they're so powerful they're otherwise pretty noticeable." Nabiki drank a little wine as she recalled the original thrust of the conversation.

"So, visiting Nerima." 'Rika' smiled at her.

"Who do you think we should go as? And who should we see?"

Her sister looked thoughtful. "Well, you could certainly go as you are and come to the Dojo. I've made no secret of the fact that I have an old friend I visit sometimes, who has a '_significant other_' of, um, the same genital grouping." 'Maiko' and 'Rika' looked at each other and burst out laughing at her dry description, as she grinned. "Nodoka isn't completely happy with that lifestyle but to give her credit she tries not to be obvious about it. Father doesn't care, Genma probably wouldn't notice, the one who would most likely be offended is Akane." She sighed. "She's still hung up on '_perversion_' in sexual matters, although not as much as she was. That's about the only good outcome of the therapy, is seems to be slowly overcoming her attitude to those matters in some ways. Not enough to really help, but I guess any change is progress."

'Rika' asked curiously, "Do you still think she's got lesbian feelings?" Nabiki nodded.

"More so than ever. I can't say exactly why, really, it's just sort of an instinct, but I'm pretty sure she's at least bisexual. Not that she'll admit it even to herself. Possibly _particularly_ to herself. She's built up this whole anti-pervert mindset and anything related to sex at all, never mind same-sex relationships, rubs her up the wrong way."

"Maybe she needs to be rubbed up the _right_ way," 'Rika' said with a sly smile, just as Nabiki was raising her glass to her mouth. The ensuing explosion of liquid only barely missed them all. 'Maiko' dissolved into helpless giggling while Nabiki stared in disbelief at her older sister, who looked back at her with a serene expression on her disguised face.

"I can't _believe_ you said that, sis," the brunette said when she'd recovered. She grinned widely. "You have a strange sense of humour." 'Rika' smiled contentedly and sipped her own drink. "Hmph. You might be right. I don't know, it's out of my field of experience. She certainly needs to face it one way or the other sooner or later. Perhaps if you two came to visit using these personae she could see there's nothing wrong with it." Glancing at her husband 'Rika' raised her eyebrows questioningly. 'Maiko' eventually nodded with a slight sigh.

"Oh, why not. It might be fun to see first hand what we've read about in the reports." Nabiki smiled.

"Any idea when?"

The other two looked at each other. "Um. Probably not for a few weeks, there's quite a lot going on at the moment we need to keep on top of. We'll let you know, and give you at least a weeks notice, OK?" The middle sister looked pleased.

"That's fine." She finished the last of her meal, placing the knife and fork across the plate. "This was a good choice, the food here is superb."

"Anyone for dessert?" 'Maiko' finished her own food, then glanced sideways at the menu lying beside her on the table. "They do some fantastic ice cream, they make it here themselves. The chocolate truffle cake is amazing as well." 'Rika' looked at her with an amused look, then turned to her sister.

"You see? A bottomless pit as far as ice cream goes." Nabiki snickered.

"I suppose I still have a little room left. Hand me that thing, I'll have a look."

"Try the poppy-seed ice cream, it's really nice." 'Maiko' passed the menu to her sister-in-law, who opened it to the dessert section and looked through it. 'Rika' finished her dish, nodding to the waiter who came over and began clearing the table. When he finished he politely waited as they decided on dessert. Nabiki ended up going with the suggested ice-cream, curious to know what poppy-seed ice cream looked like. As it turned out, the stuff didn't look very appetising, it was a dark grey mass that looked more like a pile of wood ash than anything else. However, when she tentatively tried it, she stopped in shock, before eagerly scooping up a larger amount. "Told you," 'Maiko' said with a grin, eating some of her own. 'Rika' had opted for a cherry cheesecake instead, but watched her sister with satisfaction.

"This is _amazing_," Nabiki nearly moaned, quickly finishing off her dessert then looking at the empty bowl with disappointment. She was debating ordering some more, it was so nice, but decided in the end that the extra calories probably weren't a wildly good idea.

"I know. I've never seen it anywhere else, it's their own recipe apparently." Carefully scraping the bottom of her bowl with her spoon 'Maiko' managed to get a tiny amount more, licking the implement with satisfaction and regret.

They ordered a coffee each and talked for a while, before finishing up. Looking at her watch Nabiki was somewhat surprised to see they'd been in the restaurant for nearly three hours. As 'Maiko' settled the bill she turned to her sister. "Thanks, sis. This has been a very nice evening, and I've found a new place to come back to." She caught a glimpse of the total as her sister-in-law pulled out a credit card and winced. "But not very often." 'Rika' smiled.

"I did say it wasn't particularly cheap. The food is worth the price though." As they left the Maître-de politely thanked them for the business and hoped they would return. The two disguised martial artists thanked him in turn and promised to come back soon. Outside, 'Maiko' looked at Nabiki.

"So, do you want to do anything else now, or just go back?"

"What else can we do?" the brunette asked.

"Well, it's about ten now, there's a big multiplex cinema a couple of kilometres that way, we could catch a movie, or go to a club there. Or just wander around the shopping area, some of the shops are still open now." As she spoke they were slowly walking along the road in the direction she'd initially indicated. The area they were in was fairly commercial but in a quite up-market manner, expensive cars moving slowly along the road and quite a number of people going into and coming out of various restaurants and bars. "Or we could..." She trailed off, looking across the road.

"We could?" prompted Nabiki, turning to look at the other woman while wondering why she had stopped speaking. She saw that both of her companions were now staring across the road and had ceased walking. Following their gaze she tried to work out what they were looking at.

"Damn. It never stops, does it?" 'Maiko' sounded a bit grumpy. Nabiki finally spotted what she was looking at, there was a small store on the other side of the road through the window of which she could see two men obviously robbing the place, one of them threatening the young man behind the counter with what looked for all the world like a machete, while the other one was leaning over and pulling bundles of Yen notes out of the cash register. Sighing, she looked both ways before starting across the road, followed by the other two. Walking into a service alley that ran down the side of the block of buildings that the shop was on, she handed Nabiki the disguise bracelet once more. "Just in case. Stay back, I'll deal with those two idiots." She shimmered and changed into her 'Yori' persona complete with distinctive clothing while looking annoyed, which on the face of the black-haired girl became quite an intimidating expression. 'Rika' became 'Chou' as well but stayed with her sister as the other woman stomped off down the alley radiating irritation. Curious, after a few seconds Nabiki followed at a safe distance. 'Chou' rolled her eyes a little, bringing up the rear.

"We can never just go out and have a nice relaxing evening without someone being a nuisance." Her sister glanced over her shoulder with a smile.

"Does this sort of thing happen a lot?" The other woman sighed quietly.

"All the time. It's very irritating."

"She could have just let the police handle it," Nabiki suggested. The two shared a glance then giggled. "No, that doesn't seem like it's going to happen, does it?" Rounding the corner they stopped where they could see into the shop, which 'Yori' was just entering.

"OK, you two, drop the blade and lie down with your hands over your heads, please," she said in a voice of command. The two men jumped, startled, then whirled to face her. She snickered a little. "You really should pay attention to your surroundings better than that, especially under the circumstances."

"Who the fuck are you, girl?" the large man with the machete demanded, moving it to threaten her. The clerk took the opportunity to dive for cover, after a wide-eyed stare of recognition at 'Yori'.

"I'm Yori. And I asked politely. Well, fairly politely." She smirked. The man waved the huge blade in an intimidating manner while his colleague stepped sideways to get clear, stuffing his loot into his pockets while trying to remember why that name sounded familiar.

"Get out of the way, little girl, before you get hurt." Behind the counter the face of the clerk was visible through the door to the two watching women, who saw him wince a little. Nabiki chuckled darkly.

"Whoops."

'Yori' cast the man an evaluating glance, then smiled. "Nope." Holding out her hand she projected half a meter of purple energy blade, making him stare and his associate go white.

"Oh, shit," the other man mumbled, suddenly remembering where he'd heard the name Yori before. Dropping to the floor he lay face down with his hands over the back of his head. His friend shot him a puzzled glance before looking back at the girl with the black braided hair, who he now saw was grinning at him unsettlingly. Were those _fangs? _Tentatively he reached out with the machete, pointing it at her chest, hoping that the implied threat would make her back off. The grin grew wider, showing that yes, they were indeed fangs. Only little ones, but...

'Yori' flicked her energy blade in a series of blindingly fast movements accompanied by a deep humming noise, then snapped it back into a vertical rest position. Both of them watched as the machete dropped to the tiled floor in about fifty small pieces, none of them larger than a fingernail and all glowing red hot. The handle of the weapon still in the hand of the would-be robber was now shaking gently.

"Ah..." He looked at her, then at the remains of his weapon. Then he slowly put it on the counter, lay down on the floor avoiding the smoking shards of metal and copied his partners position. The clerk stood up and peered over the counter at the two thwarted thieves and the black-haired girl who was looking pleased.

"Well done. Now, please stay there. The police will be along soon to collect you." Making the energy sword vanish and smiling at the young man who was watching her with an expression of awe she asked, "Are you OK?"

"Um, yes, thank you." The man continued to stare, then haltingly asked, "Um, Miss Yori? Could I have your autograph?" Outside, Nabiki giggled, while 'Chou' sighed again.

"Every time someone asks her that her ego gets a bit larger." Nabiki had to lean against the building she was giggling so hard now.

"Don't people ask you for yours?" Her sister smiled.

"Oh my, yes. All the time."

"And that doesn't affect _your_ ego?" The disguised Kasumi grinned.

"Of course not." Her sister shook her head in amused disbelief.

"Right. I believe you, of course."

'Yori' signed the notebook that the clerk handed her with a smile, giving it back to him. "You should call the police now. These two aren't going anywhere. Are you?" She asked the question in a hard voice, and was answered by a pair of muffled replies.

"No, Ma'am. We're staying right here," the man who had been filling his pockets said with vehemence. His friend reiterated the sentiment.

"Good. Please try to find a line of work that's less antisocial when you get out of jail."

"Yes, Ma'am." They both nodded into the floor. Waving to the clerk she walked out the door and rejoined her friend and wife.

"Right. Where were we? Oh yes, movie, club, or home?" They headed back to the alley where both the martial artists resumed their 'civilian' personae, then headed off down the alley to exit from the other end. Nabiki laughed.

"Just a routine robbery foiling, hmm?" 'Maiko' grinned.

"Yes, nothing at all interesting."

"You don't have to sound so disappointed, dear," 'Rika' commented with amusement. Her husband shrugged slightly.

"If someone is going to intrude on my night out I don't think it's unreasonable for them to at least be a bit of a challenge."

"You didn't _have_ to get involved, you know," Nabiki said with a raised eyebrow. Her sister-in-law laughed a little.

"I couldn't just let it pass, unfortunately. Martial artists oath, and all that."

The middle Tendo looked at her with a grin. "What about a magical girl's oath? Do they have one?" 'Maiko' cast a look of mild exasperation at her.

"I'm not a magical girl," she replied, sounding slightly vexed.

"Oh, yes, you are."

"Oh, no, I'm not."

'Rika' was walking along giggling to herself as they argued.

"Are too!"

"Am _not!_"

In the end they saw a movie.


	20. Chapter 20

As the taxi pulled up at the apartment building 'Rika' nudged her sister who was more than half-asleep, leaning against her and occasionally mumbling to herself. "Nabiki. We're home." The younger woman jolted awake, licking her lips and looking around. 'Maiko' grinned at her and she smiled back tiredly.

"Good. I could do with some real sleep." They climbed out of the taxi, 'Rika' opening the door while 'Maiko' paid the driver, thanking him and waving as he drove off. This one had been a somewhat younger man who had stayed quiet the entire trip, only speaking to ask for their destination. As they ascended in the elevator Nabiki nearly fell asleep again leaning against the wall. Reverting to her normal appearance Kasumi supported her as they walked to the apartment door, Ranma also dropping her disguise and opening it.

"We should have come home after the movie," the middle sister said with a huge yawn, "the club as well was a bit too much." She felt distinctly tipsy, she'd had three beers as well as the wine from dinner. Waving vaguely to her sister and sister's female husband she stumbled into her bedroom and collapsed on the bed, almost too tired to get undressed. Within thirty seconds the other two could hear snores coming from the room. Kasumi smiled at her husband.

"I think she had a good time. I certainly did." Ranma nodded, also yawning widely.

"So did I, but she's right, it's been a long night." Giggling slightly as a particularly loud snore came from Nabiki, her sister gently pulled the door shut then led the red-head to bed by the hand.

Awakening to a sunny morning Nabiki rolled over and opened her eyes, squawking in pain at the horrible sensation of daylight. "Agh! It burns!" Trying again after a few seconds she blinked ferociously, her eyes streaming. "God. That was much too much. Much, much too much." Mumbling to herself she sat up in the bed, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Eventually she felt human enough to get up, stumbling towards the nearest bathroom, muttering something incomprehensible to her sister who was coming out of the kitchen in her black practice silks. Almost without thinking she accepted the mug of coffee that was held out wordlessly, staggering off to her morning ablutions while drinking it. Kasumi watched with a smile then headed towards the practice room.

After a long shower, feeling much closer to human, Nabiki came out of the bathroom combing her hair. Hearing noises from the practice room she went in to watch Ranma and Kasumi spar with a smile. Ranma, male again, turned his head to grin at her. "Feeling better?" he asked, fending off a kick from his wife without looking. His sister-in-law nodded.

"Yes, still a bit tired, but it'll pass. Thanks for the night out, it was nice. I don't get out much at the moment."

"You're more than welcome. Kas, that's better, but you're still slightly off centre on that move. More like _this_." He spun and lashed out with his foot, halting the devastating kick less than a centimetre from his wife's face. She nodded while Nabiki winced, wide-eyed.

"I see. I think I know where I'm going wrong." Stepping back slightly she tried again. Her sister watched in amazement as she also stopped the kick, even closer to her husbands face than he had come to hers. Grinning, she asked, "How was that?" He smiled, moving her foot to one side with a fingertip so he could see her.

"Good. Quick and clean." Lowering her foot to the ground from where she had been effortlessly holding it she looked pleased.

"Wow." Nabiki shook her head. "Just... Wow. You two are pretty damn impressive." Kasumi shared a glance with Ranma then they both bowed a little.

"Thank you," they chorused.

"_And_ you're both nuts." With a grin the younger Tendo sister walked over to the middle window, looking out at the park, then turning to glance at Kasumi as she joined her. "Do you guys ever use martial arts, the purely physical stuff, against anyone? All I've seen so far is basically advanced ki stuff, that looks more like magic than anything else." Kasumi smiled.

"Oh, we do have to hit things fairly often, but we try not to. The petty criminals usually give up after a demonstration of force, or simply run. The nastier demons you pretty much have to go in hard right from the start, they don't listen to reason. That usually means an energy attack. Everything else you try to talk down first. It's surprising how often that works." Ranma came over and stood next to his wife.

"That's where most of the magical girls go wrong. They never talk to anything, they just pile in with the heavy attacks, but usually escalate steadily. No real judgement of the opposition's strengths and weaknesses. They should either start very softly and talk it out, or if that's obviously not going to work go for the kill immediately, not fool around with lesser attacks. Most of the time the first approach works very well. I'd rather talk my way out of a confrontation if possible, but if not, finish it as fast as I can. There's less risk to bystanders like that. And us. We're not invincible, just very, very good."

Kasumi added, "Ranma has also had to avoid using most of his signature attacks since we left, or disguise them as something else. They're too memorable. Creating a tornado in the middle of Minato, aside from the damage it would cause, would get back to the Amazons. Most of the ki stuff can be made to look like a magical attack by changing the colour, or something along those lines."

"To be honest, a lot of it isn't strictly speaking ki any more, not completely at any rate. There's a lot of this magic or whatever it is mixed in even with the simpler stuff. The power signature is completely different, I doubt even Cologne would recognise it now." Ranma grinned. "I think she'd be very surprised indeed if she knew what I could do, and probably fall off her stick if she had any idea at all about Kas." Nabiki laughed, picturing it.

"You know, years ago I mentioned that attack you came up with, the one you saved Kasumi with. She refused to discuss it and got the weirdest look on her face. I think she was actually scared." She shook her head wonderingly. "I've never seen the old girl look like that before or since."

"Ha. I wish I could have seen that." Ranma grinned. "I tried for years to get any real rise out of her without a lot of luck. She's just too old and experienced."

Nabiki looked at him with interest. "You almost make it sound like you respect her." With a slight laugh he nodded.

"In a way I do. She knows an awful lot about martial arts, magic, ki use, all sorts of interesting things. If everything didn't come with strings attached I'd have really enjoyed learning from her. I _did_ enjoy learning from her, even as frustrating as she was at the best of times. But there was always this whole '_Future son-in-law_', marrying Shampoo thing hanging over every interaction we had. Even when she didn't say it, we both knew what she wanted." The martial artist shook his head with a tired sigh. "It's a shame. Under different circumstances I'd have loved to learn everything she was willing to teach. I'd have like being friends with Shampoo, and even Mousse, I think, as well. They're both fine warriors, honourable people in many ways, but so inflexible in their goals..." He sighed again. "No, I'm afraid that there was no way that was ever going to end in a way that didn't make me very unhappy, or dead." Nabiki looked surprised.

"Dead?"

"Oh, yes. Mousse did on more than one occasion sincerely try to kill me. Much harder than Ryoga did. Shampoo, in the early days when she didn't know about my curse, was damn serious as well. If I hadn't been as good as I was then I'd probably have been killed." Both women looked at him sympathetically, Nabiki with considerable shock as well. She'd never really understood that all the cries of '_Die, Ranma!_' were actually serious.

"Do you think they still feel that way?" she asked curiously. He turned away from the window and walked back into the middle of the room, slowly beginning a complex kata, while thinking about his answer. Kasumi joined him wordlessly, listening.

"I'm not sure," he said after a few seconds. "Shampoo was much more interested in marrying me, although I think it wouldn't have been beyond the bounds of possibility that she might have thought that if she couldn't have me, no one could. She'd be far more likely to go after Kasumi, I think, not that it would turn out well for her if she did, but..." He worked a shrug into the movements. "I think she did, possibly still does, think she loves me, but it's kind of a selfish sort of love. Since I haven't seen her in nearly four years, I don't know whether she's changed." He thought some more while Nabiki waited. "Mousse, from what you've said and our '_agents_' have reported," he smiled at this, "is just as hung up on Shampoo now as he ever was. If he thought she was seriously going after someone else I have no real doubt he'd try to remove them as competition. The Amazon way is sort of... direct and simplistic." Nabiki nodded thoughtfully.

"That's true enough. I don't have a lot to do with Mousse, I haven't seen him for over a year. I know Shampoo still gets frustrated with him, while she likes him as a person he drives her nuts when he tries to persuade her to marry him. She really isn't interested. Ironic, really, considering how she behaved to you." The brunette chuckled ruefully. "She could never see the parallels in your situations. I tried bringing it up a couple of times but it was like trying to explain calculus to a saucepan. Total waste of time."

"It's a pity, she always stuck me as quite an intelligent girl," Kasumi said, getting into a position that made Nabiki wince, without the slightest sign of strain. "But completely obsessed. Such a waste of time and effort."

"Ah, well. Not much that can be done about it," her husband said, mirroring the position and giving his sister-in-law an upside-down smile. "Can't change the past. Or, you can try, but it doesn't work very well." Nabiki stared at this. He grinned. "Remind me to tell you about the time travelling mirror sometime."

After a long pause, she repeated, "Time travelling mirror?" in a sort of dazed voice. The martial artist flipped upright and nodded.

"Yep. Damn nuisance, and not very reliable. Time travel is a pain, stay away from it. Some of those magical girls fool around with it sometimes, it never ends well." She stared at him as he grinned quickly, then headed for the kitchen. "Time for breakfast."

"What... Time travelling _mirror?_" She looked plaintively at her sister who smiled back at her with a slight shrug.

"I know. He's had all sorts of weird adventures."

"But... _Time travelling mirror?_" Following her sister to the living room she went over it in her head, finally deciding that this time she really _didn't_ want to know.

After a leisurely breakfast, they went out again for a wander around the neighbourhood, this time without either 'Yori' or 'Chou' doing anything particularly outrageous. 'Yori' talked to a few people as did her wife, mainly greeting acquaintances and chatting for a while. The only bit of martial artistry that broke out was very minor, a snatch and grab thief had the pure bad luck to ply his trade at a market stall that 'Chou' happened to be buying some oranges at, apparently not noticing her. She reached out and poked a couple of pressure points while paying the trader with her other hand, barely looking at the young man who had grabbed a handful of yen notes out of the cash box right in front of her. He dropped to the ground like he been shot, groaning as he went numb from the neck down. Dropping her bag of oranges into ki space she bent over and relieved him of his loot, handing it over to the vendor who thanked her with a smile.

Looking down at the thief she shook her head with a small sigh. "Please try to find something else to do, or practice your thievery somewhere else. You're not very good at it." Nodding to the vendor she rejoined her sister and husband, who were watching from a few metres away with amused expressions. The vendor was beckoning over one of the local cops, who waved to the martial artists before taking a statement from the merchant. The thief was still mumbling to himself as they walked off. "Orange?" 'Chou' asked brightly, pulling three out of nowhere and handing them around. Nabiki shook her head with a smile. Her sister was...different. In a very impressive way.

Back at the apartment a while later she packed her small overnight bag. Going into the living room and sitting down on the sofa, she turned to Ranma who was watching her. "This has been fun. Thank you." He smiled.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. We both had a really nice time, we don't go out socially much either at the moment. I hope you can come back so we can do it again. I know quite a few nice restaurants."

"You and food. I see that much hasn't changed." He nodded with a wide grin, which she matched. Kasumi came out of their bedroom and walked over, holding out a box.

"Here." Nabiki took it while her sister sat next to her husband, watching her face as she opened the carton. "As promised." Reaching in and pulling out a thirty centimetre high brightly coloured box with a transparent front, Nabiki stared at the contents visible inside with a growing expression of hilarity.

"Oh, god, this is..." She started laughing. "It's fantastic!" Pulling out another box she inspected it as well, laughing even harder. The first one contained a very professionally manufactured posable doll, about twenty centimetres high, that was easily recognisable as Yori, complete with blue-streaked hair and her signature silk clothing. The work looked to be of a very high quality, just as Kasumi had said. The other box contained, of course, the matching Chou doll, equally as detailed. Reading the text on the side of the box the middle sister nearly had a fit she was giggling so hard. "Magical Girl Yori," she gasped out, "Lifelike replica. Fully moving joints, real silk clothes. Also available, Magical Girl Chou. Collect the set!" Dropping both boxes to the sofa she leaned back and roared with laughter while the other two watched with considerable amusement. Eventually she was able to speak again, picking up the 'Chou' doll in it's box and studying it with a huge grin on her face. "This is so damn funny. And really good work as well." She shook the box a little, hearing something inside rattle.

"That's the accessories," Kasumi said with a grin. Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "An energy sword, and for Yori, several bows in different colours for her braid." Nabiki started giggling again.

"Thanks, sis. These are amazing. I'm almost wanting one myself now. Akane will love them."

"There's two sets there, one for her and one for Shampoo. Although you could always keep the second set yourself and get her something else." Her sister smiled at her impishly.

"No need. I have access to the real thing." She grinned back. "But the real Yori doesn't seem to have any other colour bows. I'm disappointed." Ranma laughed.

"Hey, I like blue." After a cup of coffee each, Nabiki put the boxed dolls back in the small carton and packed it in her bag. "Would you like me to call Aiko and ask her to teleport you back like last time?" The middle sister considered the offer but declined.

"No, thanks all the same. I'm going to stop off on the way back and do some shopping, I think, I need a new top and some shoes. There's a big mall I go past on the train." Ranma nodded.

"OK. I'll call a taxi." Shortly thereafter she said goodbye to both of them, currently in their 'Maiko' and 'Rika' disguises as they'd come out of the building to wave her goodbye.

"Let me know about a visit, OK?" Both women nodded.

"I will. Take care, Nabiki," 'Rika' said, hugging her sister. 'Maiko' did as well, then she got into the taxi. As it drove off she waved through the back window, then turned to the driver. It was the same older man who had taken them to the restaurant.

"Hello again, Miss. Did you have a good night out?" he asked, smiling at her.

"I did, yes. Very good." Leaning back into the seat she settled in for the trip to the train station, a faint smile on her face. Every time she thought of the dolls she snickered a little.

Arriving home several hours later she walked in the door and sniffed suspiciously. This time there was no odd odour wafting past that might indicate an Akane-based culinary disaster in the making and she relaxed. Taking off her shoes she hung up her coat and went into the living room, dropping her overnight bag and a couple of shopping bags on the table with a sigh of relief, massaging her hand for a moment where the handle of the plastic bags had cut into it. Her younger sister came down the stairs a moment later.

"Hi, Nabiki. Did you have fun with your friends?" She smiled at the younger woman.

"Yes, it was very nice. The restaurant was amazing, then we saw a movie and went to a club for a while. We got back very late, I felt like crap this morning, but it was worth it."

"I'd like to meet your friends one day," Akane said, sitting down. Nabiki sat across from her.

"That's quite likely to happen, actually. I invited them to come and visit Nerima at some point. Both of them are very busy, the university takes up a lot of their time, but they said they'd try to arrange some time to pop over for a day. I think you'll like them." Akane looked interested, then slightly hesitant.

"Um, they're in a, a, relationship, aren't they?" Nabiki nodded. "And they're both... women?" Her sister looked amused.

"Maiko and Rika love each other very much, Akane." The younger woman flushed a little.

"I wasn't being rude, I was just... interested." She seemed to be thinking of something, nibbling her lip, but didn't add to her statement. After a moment Nabiki let it drop.

"Oh, Akane, by the way, you still collect magical girl things, don't you?" The blue-haired young woman looked up, her thoughts momentarily derailed.

"Um, Oh, yes, I do. Why?" Nabiki smiled a little deviously.

"Just checking." The other woman studied her with some suspicion.

"What are you up to, Nabiki?" she asked slowly. Her sister smirked a bit.

"Honest, I was just checking. I'm thinking about Christmas presents, and something I saw caught my eye. I just wanted to make sure it was still appropriate."

"Christmas is still three months away." The younger woman was still looking at her sister with a mildly disbelieving air.

"I know, but I like to get my shopping done early."

"Hmm." Akane looked at her innocent expression through narrowed eyes for a moment longer, then shrugged. "OK."

"When is your next appointment at the hospital?" the older sister asked, changing the subject. The other woman frowned a little.

"Tuesday. It would have been Monday, but there was some... damage... to the room." She looked slightly embarrassed. Nabiki sighed.

"Again? Akane, you _have_ to try to calm down. If nothing else getting shot with a dart gun all the time can't be good for you." Her sister glared, then shrugged.

"It's not like it even works very well," she muttered.

"That's not the point." Slightly frustrated, Nabiki slumped a little trying to come up with something she could say that might help. She was unable to think of anything much. "Just, well, try harder, please?" Akane sighed.

"I do try, 'Biki. I really do. I just can't seem to keep my temper. It's better than it was, but..." She waved one hand helplessly. "No matter what I do, I just kind of snap, sooner or later. I wish I didn't, but I can't help it." Nabiki looked at her younger sister with sympathy. It was obvious that she was being honest about how much she wanted to change, and also, unfortunately, about how hard she was finding it.

"You'll get it sorted out eventually, Akane. I'm sure of that. It's just going to take a while. Keep at it, OK?" The other woman nodded, somewhat depressed, but with a visible effort made herself smile.

"Thanks, 'Biki. I'll do my best."

"I know." They smiled at each other. "Where are the others?" Nabiki asked.

"Auntie Nodoka is out visiting a friend, and Genma and Father are in the Dojo teaching a lesson. I was just going to visit Sayuri, we're going out to see a movie. She just broke up with her boyfriend, _again_."

"Isn't that something like the third time in the last six months?" Nabiki asked. Akane nodded.

"Yes, I don't know why they have so much trouble. Hiroshi is a nice guy, although when we were at school I'd never have thought that he and Sayuri would get together. But they just seem to keep having arguments. She won't tell me what about." She shrugged. "So we're going out to cheer her up."

"OK. Give my best to her. I've got to go and have a bath, I'm all sweaty from travelling." Akane stood and left, the front door closing shortly afterwards. The older sister took her purchases up to her room, hiding the carton of dolls safely in her closet, where it would stay until she went back to the university.


	21. Embedded Side Story

The next couple of chapters wouldn't gel correctly, until they suddenly turned into a sort of side story. It seemed likely that it would just confuse people if on it's own, so presented here is _'Embedded Sidestory the First._' It also embiggened itself considerably as it developed. Hopefully this doesn't leave everyone scratching their heads. Normal service will resume after the break.

Thanks once more to everyone who has left such nice feedback. And one or two reviews that are frankly weird...

* * *

"Ah, Sergeant, thank you for joining us. Could you close the door, please?" Sergeant Tetsuo Harada did as requested, looking at Captain Uehara, then glancing at the three other people in her office curiously. Two of them, a man and a woman, were obvious foreigners, the other was a Japanese man. "I believe you speak English fluently?"

"Yes, Ma'am, I spend several years in the US at university," he responded, wondering what was going on.

"Good." She switched to that language, turning to her visitors. "This is Sergeant Harada. He will be your liaison and guide while you're here. Sergeant, this is Agent Naito from the PSIA, Lieutenant Harrison from the LAPD in the US," she indicated the man, "and Inspector Deveraux from the RCMP, in Canada, obviously." The woman, a tall and pretty woman in her mid thirties with short dark hair nodded politely. Sergeant Harada greeted all of them, bowing slightly to the intelligence agent and shaking hands with the two police officers. "Lieutenant Harrison and Inspector Deveraux are here on a joint US-Canadian police intelligence operation, following a criminal gang they suspect has ties to an Aum Shinrikyo splinter group and also a small branch of the Yakuza. There have been some... unusual incidents... in both Los Angeles and Toronto, which bear some of the hallmarks of previous attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo group, but with aspects that are a little _peculiar_." She emphasised the last word, and Harada nodded understandingly.

"You mean magic." Lieutenant Harrison looked irritated and Inspector Deveraux sighed.

"Magic doesn't exist," the American stated flatly. The three Japanese people looked at him with slightly raised eyebrows.

"Hmm. Interesting." Agent Naito studied the man with a guarded expression, but said nothing more for the moment. The RCMP woman was less circumspect.

"Richard, I don't like it any more than you do, but all the evidence is..." He cut her off.

"I don't care. It's all some sort of technical trick, or something like that. I don't know how they did it, but it's not magic. Not real magic." She sighed again. "Laura, we've worked on this for a long time, but I still haven't seen anything that would make me believe in magic."

"How do explain the fact that five suspects vanished from a completely locked room surrounded by over a hundred SWAT men, with absolutely no exits, then?" she asked mildly. "We both looked over that place ourselves. We called in an expert on escapology, x-rayed the entire building, then took it apart. There was absolutely no way out of the place except through the front door, we know that for a fact. We also know they went inside. But when we got in, the only thing we found was a weird diagram on the floor. Where did they go?" He looked both very annoyed and very puzzled, shrugging after several seconds.

"Damned if I know. But we know they've been spotted in Tokyo, so obviously they got out somehow." She started to speak, and he raised a hand to cut her off. "But _not_ by magic."

"Oh, for god's sake..." she mumbled, looking at the PSIA man, who quirked a smile at her for a moment.

"Anyway, Sergeant, we asked your Captain to assign you to us as you have a good relationship with the local, ah, special talent. We will probably need their help." Harada looked at the man with interest.

"I wasn't aware that the PSIA knew much about our girls." Agent Naito smiled.

"Oh, we keep tabs on the comings and goings of most of the specials in Minato. While some of them are a bit of a handful, on the whole we feel they're a valuable asset to the country as a whole. We know quite a lot about what they do, and how many times their help has been essential. A lot more than I suspect most of them realise." The police officer exchanged a glance with his superior, then looked back to the security agent.

"Yori might take exception to that, you know. I assume we _are_ talking about Yori and Chou?" Agent Naito nodded.

"Yes, indeed we are. Of all of them they are by far the most professional, and the ones we have the least information on. They take their security extremely seriously and are exceptionally good at it. Better than our people, to be honest. We have had some dealings with them in the past, they've always come through for us, but we haven't been able to find out much about them. The one thing we do know is that they're very, very dangerous." Harada smiled a little.

"You have no idea, I suspect. Dangerous doesn't even _begin_ to describe it. Most of that type are dangerous, it's basically the job description, _they_ are absolutely lethal. Luckily, they also are some of the most responsible, reliable, and trustworthy people I've ever met." Harrison and Deveraux were looking at each other, wondering what on earth the other two were talking about. Captain Uehara noticed and explained.

"Here in Minato we have a peculiar phenomenon, that to the best of my knowledge is almost unique to us, with the possible exception of the ward of Nerima, and one or two other places in Japan. Have you heard of Magical Girls?" The two visiting police officers exchanged puzzled glances.

"Um, like in the comic books? A sort of Japanese superhero? Always female, dress in skimpy clothing, battle supernatural opponents?" Lieutenant Harrison looked at the three Japanese people with a sceptical and puzzled expression. "My daughter reads some comics like that. It always seemed like an excuse for the artists to draw pretty girls without much on, in my opinion." The Captain smiled.

"That's more or less it." She paused for a moment, then added, "We have rather a lot of them around here."

"Oh, come on! You're telling me that there are teenaged girls in miniskirts jumping around the rooftops battling demons in Tokyo, _for real?_" He laughed derisively. Inspector Deveraux smiled a little, then both of them noticed that all three of the others looked completely serious.

"Basically, yes." The PSIA agent looked evenly at the LAPD man. "I understand it's a bit odd, but essentially those comics are based on reality. I don't know why it happens here and nowhere else, but I assure you it's real."

"You have to be kidding me," Harrison said, sounding almost like he was pleading to be let in on the joke.

"Sorry, but I'm not. We have magical girls, real ones, and if anything they're even stranger than in your daughter's comic books. The Sergeant here can introduce you to a couple of them. He can certainly show you the results of some of their efforts on behalf of the community."

Inspector Deveraux smiled slightly at the weird expression on the face of her American colleague, quickly stifling it when he glanced at her as if to a bastion of common sense in this strange foreign land. "So, if you have magical girls, do you have demon attacks as well?" she asked with light interest. "That's traditionally what they fight, if I have my urban mythology straight." The three natives nodded. With a sudden shock she realised they were completely serious.

"You've _got_ to be kidding," Harrison said again, almost under his breath. Ignoring him, the Captain addressed Sergeant Harada.

"Two of the suspects in the LA attack were spotted very close to here a week or so ago. The PSIA tracked them to an area of about half a square kilometre before the trail went cold. We suspect they have some magical method of concealment, or are in league with one of our extremely out of town visitors." He nodded, understanding what she meant. "There was talk about blanketing the area with our people, but it was felt that this would both alarm the residents unnecessarily and also probably tip off our little group of nasties. If they move on we could lose them for months, if not permanently. Someone suggested setting Yori loose on them, and while it was felt that would probably sort the problem out for good, we'd like to arrest them rather than just have another duck pond." Harada grinned, while the visitors looked puzzled.

"What we'd like you to do is contact her and Chou, and ask them, politely of course, if they'd mind helping us track this group down and provide support if it goes bad." Captain Uehara paused, looking at the two foreigners for a moment. "We can't afford to have our guests get involved too heavily, it would be a bit of a diplomatic nightmare. They're mainly here for intelligence support and as observers." Harrison and Deveraux both looked somewhat unhappy about this but said nothing. Harrison was still apparently trying to figure out where the joke was about the concept of magical girls, without a lot of luck. Sergeant Harada smiled.

"OK, I can do that. It may take a few hours, her security is pretty tight and she doesn't always respond immediately."

"That's fine. There's no massive hurry, we'll go when they're available. We have some people watching from a discreet distance just in case one of the suspects shows up, but based on what's happened so far I doubt it's going to be that easy, unfortunately."

"May I use your phone, Ma'am?" The captain pushed it across her desk to him. Picking it up the Sergeant dialled a memorised number while removing a small card from his shirt pocket, then as the others watched with interest read off a long sequence of numbers and letters from it. Inspector Deveraux realised after a moment, with some surprise, that she couldn't remember what they were. She turned to Agent Naito, who was watching her with a knowing expression.

"Weird, isn't it?"

"What's going on?" she asked, half-expecting the answer. He grinned.

"Magic, of course. That girl takes her privacy seriously and has some very cool toys." He waited as Harada left a message then hung up. "Sergeant, can you show the Inspector the card, please?" He looked puzzled, then suddenly understanding, handing it over. She took it and studied it curiously. The card was completely blank, just a small rectangle of white card stock.

"Um, what am I supposed to see?" He grinned at her.

"Nothing. That's the point. Only the owner of the particular card can read it." Taking it back from her he put it away. Noticing her sceptical expression he explained. "The card is magical, and keyed to a particular person. Anyone other than that person can only see a blank card, and even the person it's keyed to can't tell anyone what's on it. Each card has a different password so she knows that who has it." Agent Naito smiled, looking impressed.

"I wish we had security that good. I have no idea how she does it, but I know it works. Not many people rate having her contact details, she doesn't hand them out very often. It's quite a sign of trust." Harrison and Deveraux exchanged glances.

"You realise how insane that sounds? And difficult to prove, if no one really can see what's on the card, who's to say it isn't just a blank card." Harada laughed.

"Honestly, inspector, we're not playing some elaborate practical joke. You'll see, later." Moments later the phone rang. "Hmm. That was quick. She must be bored." With a glance at his superior, who nodded approval, he picked it up and answered in Japanese. "Hello, Yori. Yes, fine, thanks. How's Chou? Good. Look, we have a problem we need some special help for. Could you two meet us somewhere? There are some people here who I'd like you to meet. Yes. Yes, that would be fine. Ten minutes? Great. Thanks." Hanging up he smiled, switching back to English for the benefit of the visitors. "She's happy to help, and will meet us outside in about ten minutes. I'd better get a couple of cups of coffee, she and Chou drink a lot of it and like ours." Leaving the room he headed for the cafeteria.

Inside, the two visiting police officers looked at each other with bemusement, then turned to the captain. "Agent Naito will come with you. You've both been given special dispensation to carry your service weapons while on this assignment, but I must emphasise, especially to you, Lieutenant Harrison, that you must _only_ use them as a matter of last resort. Here in Japan we take a very dim view of people discharging firearms at all, never mind in the street. This isn't LA. If you use your gun you better have a damn good reason for it, or you may find yourself staying a lot longer than you planned. Do I make myself clear?" He nodded. "Good. Make sure you carry the letters of authorisation you have been issued at all times, and do not let your weapons out of your sight. And one more thing. _Do not_, under _any_ circumstances, point a weapon at the magical girls. If you do the police and security forces of Japan won't be held responsible for what happens next. It wouldn't have any effect except to make them angry in any case, and trust me, you don't want to make them angry. You really, really don't." The Canadian and American police officers looked at each other for a moment, then nodded again.

"Yes, Captain." Inspector Deveraux looked at the older woman curiously. "If they're that dangerous, why do you allow them to run around the street?" Captain Uehara glanced at Agent Naito, then turned back to the woman.

"Partly because we have no effective way of stopping them even if we wanted to, but mainly because they perform a service that no one else could. If they weren't around, well, let's just say that it would get very messy if past events are anything to go by." She smiled a little scarily. "If you stay here for very long you may well find out what I mean. Anyway, good luck, and remember, do not annoy the magical girls! And if a demon attacks, get out of the way and let them handle it." They left the office looking worried, going in the direction of the main entrance.

"Masao, please keep them out of trouble, hmm?" the captain said. "I really don't want an international incident here, we have enough to do as it is. And don't let Harrison piss Yori off too much. I know his type, he's likely to be somewhat disrespectful to a young woman, which might be a bad mistake. She doesn't suffer fools gladly from what I've heard." He grinned.

"Yes, I believe you're right. Don't worry, the PSIA doesn't want any trouble from either the Americans or the Canadians either. At least the Canadians are polite, the Americans can be... abrasive. I will keep in touch." He bowed slightly, then followed the two foreigners. The captain watched him leave, then sighed.

"Magical girls. Demons. How did it come to this? Life used to be so much simpler." With a shake of her head she got back to her paperwork.

Inspector Deveraux and Lieutenant Harrison stood outside the front door of the central police station, looking around the small park it fronted onto. The Inspector was quite impressed with the area, it had a lot of greenery and seemed quite affluent and up-market, but not in an in-your-face sort of way. Everything was surprisingly clean and well looked after, the locals were respectful and pleasant, and although it was beginning to get cooler as autumn drew in, it was still warmer than Toronto. Harrison was shivering a little, though.

"Damn, it's cold. LA is much warmer than this even at this time of year." She grinned.

"If you think this is bad you should visit Toronto in the winter. It hit minus thirty last winter where I live, and that's nothing compared to further north." He stared, doing the conversion from Centigrade to Fahrenheit in his head, then looked appalled.

"Fuck. That's horrible. No thanks, I'll stay where it's warm."

"Come on, it's warm here, it must be at least fifteen degrees." He looked at her with an annoyed expression, zipping his coat up.

"Which is half what it should be to make me feel comfortable." After a pause while she smiled, amused, he slowly asked, "Do you believe everything they said in there? Magical girls? Demons? Hell, magic in the first place?" Glancing at him she shrugged.

"It's pretty hard to believe, I admit, but they seem sincere enough to me." A hand reached past her shoulder holding a disposable cup of coffee.

"We are sincere, and yes, it's all true," Sergeant Harada said with a smile as she jumped a little, then accepted the cup. He handed one to the American as well, then to the PSIA man who came up silently. Placing two of the three he had left on the wall next to the entrance to the station, he leaned against it and took a sip of the remaining one. Harrison tried his and nodded in slightly surprised satisfaction.

"Hey, that's pretty good. Especially for police issue coffee." Harada laughed.

"We take our coffee seriously around these parts." Studying the two police officers he asked, "So, you seem to have trouble with the concept of magic." The looked at each other, then back at him.

"I'm more puzzled that you guys don't," Harrison said. "I mean, magical girls? Teen-aged mini-skirted magical superheroes running around the place beating up demons. _Demons_, even. It's insane. Even if it was true, why does no one outside Japan know about it?" Agent Naito smiled slightly.

"Oh, some do, trust me. The UK, for instance, has a very long history of this sort of thing, but in a different way. Europe in general is aware of it, as is China. We seem to have a lot more of it, I'll grant you that, and the magical girls seem to be unique to us, but it's all around you if you know what to look for. It always puzzles me that North Americans have so much trouble believing it, while at the same time so many of them believe they've been abducted by aliens. Which is just silly." He chuckled, while Deveraux burst out laughing. Even Harrison smiled at this.

Sergeant Harada looked off to one side, then said, "Well, if you want to ask about magical girls, you can ask them." He pointed, and the other three turned to look in the direction he was staring. The eyes of the two foreign police officers bugged out at the sight of two young women, dressed not in the mini-skirts of the comics but in fairly stylish silk clothing, leaping easily from building to building some five or six stories up, heading down the street in their direction. The one in the lead, dressed in black with her long blue-striped black hair in a braid that blew behind her with the speed she was moving, reached the edge of the last building and simply ran off it, somersaulting several times during the graceful arc she made to ground level. Landing on her feet as lightly as if she'd jumped off a chair she walked towards them, while behind her the somewhat taller short-haired blonde woman in grey clothes performed exactly the same manoeuvre.

"Holy fucking hell," Harrison whispered. "How..." He ran out of words. Deveraux didn't have any to start with. Both of them watched as the two women, who looked about nineteen or twenty, crossed the street towards them, stopping once or twice to greet various people, none of whom looked even slightly surprised at what they'd just done. Waving to a couple of police officers who were getting into a patrol car, they walked up to the little group and stopped, looking curiously at the two people gaping at them before turning to Harada.

"Hi, Sergeant," the shorter woman said, accepting the cup of coffee he handed her with a nod of thanks. He did the same to her blonde companion. "So, what's all this about?" She looked the three people she didn't know up and down intently. Her unusually tinted eyes almost glowed, making them feel a sense of considerable energy only barely contained. "An American, a Canadian I think, and someone from the PSIA." This last sentence was said in very good English for the benefit of the foreigners. Both the overseas cops were still staring, but Agent Naito smiled a little.

"How did you know I'm from the PSIA?" he asked.

"That's what your ID says," the blonde woman said, looking with interest at the contents of a wallet she was holding. He stared, patting his jacket with his hand, then sighed.

"Magical girls." Holding out his hand he asked politely, "Can I have it back, please?"

"Certainly." The blonde handed it over with a smile. He turned to the black haired girl to see her reading the contents of another wallet.

"Hmm. LAPD. A long way from home, Lieutenant." She flipped the ID shut and tossed it back to Harrison, who caught it reflexively looking stunned. Neither of them had come closer than a couple of metres to any of the people. Sergeant Harada was grinning.

"Stop showing off, Yori. These are guests." She laughed.

"Sorry. We get curious." The other girl handed Deveraux her own ID with an apologetic smile. The Canadian took it numbly, putting it back into the interior pocket it had mysteriously somehow disappeared from. "So. What can we do for the police today? Or is it a PSIA event again?" The girl smiled at Agent Naito, who grinned back.

"It's a joint operation with international links. Our overseas friends here are coming along as observers, although their respective forces have considerable interest in this case." Yori raised an eyebrow.

"It must be a significant one if you're allowing foreign police officers to carry their weapons on the street." Lieutenant Harrison looked at her, startled.

"Why do you think we're armed?" She glanced at her blonde friend, who smiled.

"You have a Glock 17 9mm pistol in a shoulder holster, with two spare magazines. Your Canadian colleague is carrying a Smith and Wesson 5906 9mm, which I believe is standard RCMP issue. She's only got one spare magazine, although she also has a number of rounds in her purse." Both police officers stared at the blonde, then at each other.

"Holy crap. How did you do that?" Harrison was astounded and quite worried. They shrugged.

"It's a martial arts thing," Yori answered. "Difficult to explain. Anyway, I'm Yori, as you've probably already gathered, this is Chou. Nice to meet you, Lieutenant Harrison." She held out her hand and after a moment he shook it. Rather unwisely he decided to try to assert his own masculinity, which was feeling slightly overwhelmed, squeezing harder than necessary. She smiled slightly at him, apparently not noticing. With a small frown he squeezed harder. "Do you _really_ want to do this, Lieutenant?" He saw something in her sharp violet-blue eyes that made him back off. Her friend put a warning hand on her shoulder and she released his hand, stepping back.

"Sorry," he muttered. She waved it off, grinning a little which showed off her small fangs, a sight that made both North Americans glance at each other for a second.

"No bother." Naito, who had been watching their interactions with a certain amount of humour, stepped forward.

"OK, now that we've established how clever we all are, let me introduce everyone _properly_." He spared each magical girl a minor glare, making them look mildly embarrassed and also amused. Yori graciously gestured for him to continue. "Thank you. Right, this is Lieutenant Richard Harrison, LAPD, and Inspector Laura Deveraux, RCMP. I'm Masao Naito from the PSIA as you somehow worked out. We have a problem we hope you can help with, we asked Sergeant Harada to call you as he knows you. Would you like to come inside where we can explain?" The two young women exchanged a glance then nodded.

"Of course," Yori said. "Always happy to help. Lead on." With a chuckle he waved them inside the police station then followed, Sergeant Harada and the two visitors bringing up the rear. Harrison watched the girls walking in front of them with an expression of incredulity on his face, while Deveraux watched him. Harada watched both of them.

"Believe in magic yet?" the inspector asked her American colleague in a low voice, glancing at the two young women who were chatting with the PSIA man. He shrugged helplessly.

"I'm not sure, but I certainly believe something weird is going on. How the hell did they do that?"

"Which part? Jumping off a five story building like it was ten centimetres tall, or somehow getting our IDs out of our coats from two metres away. Or knowing exactly what our weapons are and how much ammo we're carrying from the same distance?"

He almost giggled. "Any of it. All of it. It's completely nuts. They're only about three years older than my daughter, for god's sake." Harada, bringing up the rear, laughed.

"Oh, some of the magical girls are much younger than that. Age doesn't seem to be a factor. That said, I suspect they're actually rather older than they look, they have a much more mature outlook on life than their appearance would suggest, odd sense of humour aside. Don't let what they look like fool you. Both of those ladies could take out a division of any army in the world without much difficulty, should they want too. Some of the things I've seen them do is... pretty damn impressive, even by magical girl standards. Remind me to show you the crater in the park. It's a good demonstration of what Yori can do if she feels it's necessary."

They looked at each other. "Crater?" asked Deveraux. He nodded.

"Yes. About twenty metres across, lined with glass. That's what happened when she got miffed with a particularly unpleasant demon."

"A twenty metre crater?" Harrison sounded both fascinated and horrified.

"Oh, it's a duck pond now, it was too much trouble to fill it in, but you can still see the glass slag lining. I've got no idea how much energy was needed to do that, but it was a hell of a lot. How she kept it from breaking every window in Minato is beyond me. The noise was pretty impressive even so, especially from only a hundred metres away. There wasn't anything at all left of the demon." He shook his head with a mildly amused smile while remembering, as the other two looked at each other, aghast. "I certainly wouldn't like to see her _really_ go all out. You'd probably see the explosion from the moon."

"A crater?" Harrison mumbled again, trying to wrap his mind around the concept. Deveraux looked at him and sighed a little, he was going to have a lot of difficulty with this. She was having quite a lot herself and her mind was much more flexible.

Naito took over a small conference room, closing the door and pulling a sheaf of papers from an inside pocket. Spreading them across the table he explained the situation while both the silk-clad women listened intently, asking pertinent and insightful questions occasionally. Deveraux found her opinion of both of them going steadily up as it became more and more apparent that there were a couple of first-class minds there as well as the strange abilities. Both she and Harrison explained their respective forces' involvement in the case, while Harada sat and listened silently, watching all the participants with interest.

"So far, there have been at least forty-three deaths we know of associated with these people. We're not sure exactly what they are trying to do, or even if the deaths were deliberate or accidental. There were three separate cases in LA and the surrounding area, accounting for eighteen fatalities, and five cases in the greater Toronto area which produced the rest. The American and Canadian forces had been closing in on the suspects for nearly a year, and it all came to a head a few months ago when two of them were shot while apparently setting up to do... _something_. No one seems to have any real idea what. The other five who have so far been identified managed to barricade themselves into a locked basement room, but they were gone when the LAPD SWAT finally broke in over two hours later."

Agent Naito looked seriously at the two young women. "We do not like the idea of anything like that happening here in Japan, as you can imagine, so we want to stop them as soon as possible. Especially considering the provenance of the people apparently involved. But the PSIA, who ended up with responsibility for this case, knows when it's in over it's head on certain matters. Hence your involvement. You've been a great help in the past, I'm hoping you can be again."

Yori pulled out one photo from the pile that he had put on the table, looking at it again. She showed it to her colleague who nodded with a frown. "This is a one-shot teleport spell, a bit over-complicated but effective. As far as I can see the coordinates it was targeted to would be somewhere in Japan, but I can't make out a few of the symbols that would locate it more precisely than that. Someone has stepped on it and erased some critical parts." She glanced at the two visitors. "In future, if you come across something like this, try to get a clear photo of it without disturbing it." They nodded, still having trouble with the concept of teleportation.

"It's been drawn pretty amateurishly, to be honest. I doubt it was a trained mage, I think whoever made it was shown how to do this one spell and given something to power it as an escape method. Did you find anything like a glass ball, perhaps ten centimetres across?" Harrison looked up.

"Yes, actually. We thought it was the remains of a light bulb but none of them were missing. It was broken on the floor in the middle of that pattern." She nodded.

"OK, that was a sort of magical battery. It would have contained enough energy to run this spell once and transport, oh, perhaps six people at most. It probably broke when the spell activated. It wouldn't have told you much anyway, they're pretty anonymous. You can buy them by the case in some of the demon worlds." They all stared at her.

"Demon worlds?" Naito asked slowly. The black-haired woman grinned.

"Demons have to come from somewhere, right?" Harada snickered a little. He was perhaps the only one in the room who had some idea of what she was talking about, having met a number of the more peaceful otherworldly visitors, mainly through Yori. Even the PSIA man seemed slightly startled. "We get a lot of traffic through Minato, for some reason I still haven't worked out. I think that it might be a sort of gateway for demon portals, they are easier to make here than most other places. Anyway, some of the other worlds have a certain amount of trade with and through here, quite a lot of magic workers get supplies from them. These magical storage devices are a pretty common and cheap trade good in certain areas. They're quite useful for people who don't have a lot of magic themselves but need to work a spell. Not all spells can be adapted to use them, but quite a few useful ones can." Making a quick gesture with her hand she was suddenly holding a small transparent sphere that looked like it was made of glass. She rolled it across the table to Naito who picked it up and looked at it, while Harrison and Deveraux looked at each other wondering where it had come from.

"That's the sort of thing. Possibly not that exact model, there are quite a few of them."

"This is a magical battery?" Agent Naito asked curiously. She smiled.

"Yes. It can hold a fair amount of power for months, perhaps years if it's made properly." She produced another one from wherever such things came from, then held it up. It slowly began glowing, as if it was being filled with purple-blue mist. After a few seconds it was as bright as the lights in the ceiling. "That's about enough to run the spell that you found." They looked on in awe, the two foreign police officers gaping at the most direct evidence of magic they'd ever seen. Deveraux nudged her colleague.

"Still don't believe in magic?"

"I'm beginning to," he replied quietly. Yori heard him and with a smile rolled the ball in his direction. Stopping it with his hand he pulled it quickly away when he felt it tingle, like the ball was charged with static electricity.

"It's safe to touch," she said. Hesitantly he reached out and picked the ball up, looking at it in wonder, before handing it to Deveraux. Rubbing his fingertips together he remembered the odd sensation. After a moment the Canadian woman handed it back to the black-haired woman. Holding it in one hand she somehow made the strange energy go back to where it had come from, leaving the ball transparent once more, before making it disappear again. None of the watchers could figure out where it went. Naito rolled the first one back and she vanished that one as well.

"So, are you a magic worker, then?" Deveraux asked, feeling slightly foolish even as she spoke. Yori shook her head.

"Not in the way you're thinking. Our magic works differently. I can't work a spell like that, although I could easily power it. Our energy is compatible, the method isn't. It's complicated if you don't understand multidimensional visualisation techniques." They looked blank and she sighed a little, exchanging glances with Chou, who smiled. "It's complicated. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that there are a few conclusions we can draw. Either your suspects have contacts with one of the otherworlds, or know someone who does. There is a mage involved, quite a good one, although _they_ aren't mages. I would suspect some form of demon involvement as well, although I can't explain why I think that. It just feels like it. That cuts down the possible people to a few dozen, most of whom we know. I can ask around to see if we can figure out who is involved, which should let us work out where they are."

Agent Naito produced a map, which he spread out on the table, pushing the other documents to the side. "The PSIA tracked them to this general area, but it's quite large and difficult to search." He indicated a red line drawn around a roughly rectangular block of the locality approximately half a kilometre from corner to corner. Both Yori and Chou studied it.

"Close to the university over here, half the shopping district, some office buildings, and a couple of the student dorms as well. There are a lot of people in that area, it could get very nasty if something went bad." Chou looked at the map with concern.

Harada got up and leaned over Yori's shoulder, inspecting the map himself. "Can you locate them in all this?" he asked. The black-haired young woman looked thoughtful.

"They must be quite well shielded or I'd probably have spotted them already, we check out new magic users when they pop up on our patch. I'm pretty sure there's no portal there, those things stand out like a sore thumb for kilometres no matter how well you try to shield them and I haven't felt any for weeks around here, so they're probably still in this world. I'd guess they're hiding in a building somewhere in here, most likely underground, with the best wards they could manage around them. I'll have a poke around, but our best bet is to track them through their mage, I think. Mind you, we might get lucky."

Lieutenant Harrison shook his head in wonder. "I can't believe we're having a serious discussion about demons, portals to other worlds, and magic. With a pair of magical girls, to boot. No offence," he added hastily, looking at the two young women.

Yori grinned. "None taken, although I prefer to think of myself as a martial artist. But I can understand you might have some problems with all of this. I'm sorry, it's all real. You'll have to get used to that." He shrugged.

"I'm still not sure I believe it all, but I'm willing to go along with it for the moment."

"Fair enough." She studied him for a moment longer, then turned to Agent Naito. "I'll ask around. I'd prefer not to have people like this around here, we've gone to a lot of trouble to make this a safe place to live. It'll take a day or two to contact everyone we need to, but we'll make a swing through that area tonight and see if we can get any leads."

"Thanks. All of us will be here at the station most of the time, please call immediately if you do find anything." He handed her a business card with his name and a cell number on it. After looking at it for a second she made it literally disappear. He grinned. "That's a damn good trick." Laughing, she nodded.

"It has its uses. We'll be in touch." Standing, she looked at them for a moment, then added, "We don't want anything happening either, we happen to like this area a lot. You have our word we'll do everything we can to help you." Chou nodded with a smile, glancing at Sergeant Harada while opening the door, then to the shock of the Canadian and American police officers, both magical girls simply faded from view. Harrison stared in disbelief, sharing a wide-eyed glance with Deveraux. Sergeant Harada chuckled while Agent Naito sighed slightly with a shake of his head.

"Yori likes her little moments of drama, especially with new people," Harada said with a small grin. "She can be a bit of a show-off."

"_I heard that,_" came a faint voice from somewhere, followed by a couple of giggles that faded away down the hallway. He grinned more widely.

"Case in point." Harrison was still staring at the empty doorway with a look of shock on his face. Deveraux finally poked him on the shoulder.

"Come on, Richard, let's get some lunch. You're never going to work it out, just go with it." He shook his head hard a couple of times like he'd been slapped, then looked at her wide-eyed.

"They... went invisible? Or something?" His voice sounded both shocked and almost affronted, as if what he'd seen was annoying him. She shrugged.

"Something, I guess. Believe in magic now, then?" After a long moment he nodded slowly.

"It's as good a description as anything, at this point." He turned to the two Japanese people who were watching them with amused expressions. "And there are more like those two?" Agent Naito smiled momentarily.

"Not exactly like _them_. Yori and Chou are in a class of their own. But yes, we have at least some information on approximately fifty-four magical girls in Minato ward alone, either individuals or groups. The largest group consists of about a dozen, most are three to five. They range in age from around eleven or so up to mid twenties, but that's only an estimate, most of them have one form or other of disguise method available. We know the, for want of a better word, civilian identity, of about half of them, the rest are still anonymous. Those two are the most anonymous of all. We know, at least officially, almost nothing about them." He looked thoughtful. "I'm pretty sure that someone in our government knows more about them, but isn't saying. It's way above my pay grade as you Americans would say. I do know that they've helped out on a few occasions with some very sensitive operations, and that as far as the government is concerned they have a remarkably high if off the books security rating. Someone a lot higher up than me seems to feel they're very trustworthy. I'd love to know more but I doubt I ever will." He shrugged.

"Anyway, that's your introduction to magical girls. Stay around Minato for long and you'll probably run into others, but I think you've just met the best ones."

They stood up, Sergeant Harada gesturing to the door. "If you'll come with me I know a nice restaurant down the street, or we can go to the cafeteria if you'd prefer." Between them they decided to go to the restaurant. Or rather three of them did, Harrison still seemed to be having trouble with life at the moment, he looked like he was trying to understand how everything had gotten so weird so suddenly. This whole case had been an exercise in the odd anyway, but the last hour or so was almost beyond belief.

Inspector Deveraux was watching the expressions going across the face of her American counterpart with considerable sympathy, she was feeling quite a lot of what he obviously was as well. The whole situation was surreal to put it mildly. "So they battle demons, and other magical threats? Do you really have so many attacks here that so many of them are necessary? Do they do anything else?" She was full of questions, most of which seemed even to her to be weird. Sergeant Harada nodded a little as they walked down the street.

"Unfortunately, in Minato as a whole, yes, we do seem to attract incursions of an unusual sort. Not so much in this immediate area any more, for which you can directly thank Yori and Chou. I've got no doubt about that. When they turned up about three years ago, this district had as many demon attacks as the rest of Minato, which is a lot more than seems likely. Most of them are fairly low level, sort of the supernatural equivalent of a mugging, but there have been a few that could have been extremely nasty. One or two of them _have_ been. We've lost quite a few people over the years to... things. The various groups of girls have a pretty high success rate in stopping this sort of problem. Quite a few of these attacks probably couldn't have been stopped in any other way. The main problem historically has been that the collateral damage from the battles between the demons and the demon hunters has been pretty impressive, sometimes worse than if the demons had been left to their own business."

He smiled somewhat ruefully. "In fact, having talked to Yori about a number of these cases, that's certainly true. Most, if not all of the other magical girls tend to come down like the fist of god on anything even slightly outside the ordinary, which can be very hard on the surroundings. She's shown me that a lot of the time none of that was necessary. It turns out that like she said, there is a lot of otherworldly trade to and through Minato, for some reason, which is essentially peaceful and harmless. Right up to the point that some overenthusiastic magic-powered schoolgirl drops the hammer of doom on it and blows up half a street. Yori gets extremely annoyed about things like that, she seems to take it quite personally. The result has been that she's ended up fighting other magical girls nearly as often as weird demons, to get them to stop smashing the place up."

Agent Naito chuckled and both visitors turned to look at him. "Reading the various reports, I've formed the opinion that Yori and Chou are essentially the magical girl police in many ways. The two of them have done a lot to keep the other groups under control, and aren't above shutting them down hard if they think it's getting excessive. Yori is surprisingly pleasant to talk to, I was expecting someone much more abrasive from what I've read, but you don't want to get on her bad side." Harada started laughing, all three of the others looking at him.

"No, you certainly don't. That girl has a mouth on her you wouldn't believe, it's awe-inspiring. Chou can be pretty damn intimidating as well but is much quieter about it, which is almost worse. She makes you feel like you've let your mother down. Yori just makes you wish you were back in basic training again for the peace and quiet. They're both damn effective though. Since they've been around the collateral damage has dropped to almost nothing in the district and gone down a lot throughout Minato. They took steps to arrange reimbursement to people affected by magical girl and demon fights, they'll stomp on a demon hunter just as hard as a demon if they think it's getting out of hand, and they go out of their way to deal with any real danger in a way that minimises damage. It's all very impressive. Ah, here it is." He indicated the restaurant in question, a few metres down the street.

"You call a twenty-metre crater minimal damage?" Harrison asked, looking askance at the sergeant. The other man nodded seriously as they entered the restaurant.

"To be honest, under the circumstances, yes. The thing that was attacking was practically unstoppable. I can guarantee you that conventional force, if it worked at all, would have pretty much wrecked the entire neighbourhood. She lured it to a park away from any people, then vaporised it cleanly and efficiently. Oh, she admitted afterwards that she might have overdone it a little and was very embarrassed about it, but no one who was there holds that against her. The damn thing had already killed five people a few kilometres away in another district and the local magical girl group, who are very good themselves, couldn't stop it."

"How many of them were there in this other group?" Deveraux asked curiously.

"Four, as far as I know. I don't know them very well, but they're friends of Yori and Chou I believe. One of the few other groups she seems to feel are competent. I know she trains others she feels are worth the effort, but not many of them come up to her standards." He grinned a little. "She has very high standards. I don't know where she got her own training, but that girl knows more about martial arts than any ten grandmasters. There doesn't seem to be a discipline she doesn't have a working knowledge of, and in most cases to an incredibly high level. I know quite a bit myself, a lot of the police around here do, but she's so far beyond anything I've ever seen it's almost impossible. Anything from Tai Chi to Muai Thai to Krav Maga, you name it she knows it. Plus a lot I've never heard of before. I suspect quite a few she's come up with herself." The visitors looked both impressed and a little appalled.

"How could someone that young possibly learn so many different martial arts?" Harrison wondered. Sergeant Harada shrugged.

"No idea. But seeing her in action is absolutely awe-inspiring. Far more impressive than any Hollywood action movie. She makes the best efforts of Bruce Lee look like the work of a rank amateur. Chou isn't quite as experienced, I think, but she knows nearly as much. Yori is obviously training her and has been for years. They both have a raw talent for martial arts that goes beyond genius, leaving aside the magical powers or whatever they are." The waitress that met them seated them at a window table, greeting Harada by name with a smile. He ordered a round of soft drinks and coffee, which she quickly brought along with four menus. The visitors looked through them, the two Japanese natives translating where necessary. Eventually they had all ordered food and the conversation restarted where it had left off.

Agent Naito asked, "What's the relationship between Yori and Chou, do you think? I've read all the information we have on them, which isn't much, and it's obvious they come as a set, but does it go further than that?" Harada smiled slightly.

"I'm not completely sure, and to be honest it's none of my business, but I suspect they've lovers if nothing else. It probably goes deeper. I _do_ know that if you threatened either one of them the other one would end you so fast you'd never see it coming." The PSIA man nodded thoughtfully.

"Probably best not to do that, then." He grinned. "Not that I have any intention of ever trying anything like that. As far as we're concerned they're an invaluable asset and I suspect my own head would be on the chopping block if I was foolish enough to do anything silly, from someone at a considerable political height." Harada studied him with interest.

"I've always thought she had friends in weird places. Well, I know for a fact she has friends in _weird_ places, but I mean high places as well. On both sides of the law." Harrison glanced at Deveraux, who leaned forward.

"What do you mean by that, Sergeant?" Harada shrugged again.

"Just that there are a number of very high-level Yakuza who treat both of them with extreme respect. More so than just the threat they could pose if they wanted to would seem to warrant. I've got no doubt that if they got seriously pissed off the Yakuza would cease to exist in short order, but by and large they leave them alone, unless they do something stupid. In this case, stupid means getting involved in prostitution or drugs anywhere in the district, or violence against people who in some way don't warrant it. Or violence against women anywhere. God help you if you try anything like a sexual assault anywhere in Minato, because no one else will. Yori has absolutely _no_ sense of humour at all about that sort of thing and she seems to have passed that on to most if not all of the magical girls and a hell of a lot of the Yakuza higher-ups." He laughed for a moment.

"Zero-tolerance doesn't even begin to describe it. We haven't had a rape here in two years, and the last perpetrator crawled into the station and begged to be arrested. He was in hospital for two months before he could be moved to jail." He didn't seem too upset about this.

The overseas officers looked somewhat taken aback. "And you let them get away with this, this, vigilantism?" Deveraux asked. Harada looked briefly at Agent Naito, who nodded a little, then answered honestly.

"We couldn't stop them if we wanted to, which we don't. One thing you should understand is that they're not really vigilantes. Unofficially, Yori and Chou, at least, have considerable backing from people who feel that they're doing a very good job. They don't charge for what they do, between them they've saved certainly hundreds of lives, if not thousands, both from demon attacks and more run of the mill crime or accidents. Plus when we ask for their help in unusual cases, they always give it without question. I suspect if we asked them to leave they probably would, they have a lot of respect for the authorities, more than some of them warrant in my opinion, but the result of that would undoubtedly be a disaster." Sergeant Harada paused for a moment, thinking about something, then continued.

"Leaving aside the fact that the community and most of the local police force would probably revolt on the spot anyway, those two are thought of extremely highly around here. People don't make much fuss about it, but they like and respect them. Between them they know practically every resident here, a lot of whom owe them thanks for something or other. Most of the magical girls are cut quite a bit of slack since they perform a very useful service that probably couldn't be done any other way, but that pair is genuinely respected to a remarkable level." He shook his head a little. "It's difficult to explain to someone from outside Japan. We run into a cultural problem. You see a vigilante, someone working outside the law, we see something else." Trying to think of the best way to get it across he paused again, while the visitors waited curiously.

"There's a long tradition in this country of the wandering martial artist, who protects the innocent. Add to that the even longer tradition of the Samurai, and a number of other things, you end up with a very high tolerance for someone like them. All the magical girls, really, even the more inept ones. They may at times act outside criminal law, but they act honourably, to protect the community from any threat, which is a very big deal to us. People respect that they help quietly and efficiently, often resolving trouble without involving official attention. When a matter does require police involvement they let us know and we take over, they never want any credit. It makes our job a lot safer if nothing else."

Lieutenant Harrison was listening with interest. "What _does_ happen if someone pulls a weapon on them?" he asked curiously. "Your Captain was very insistent that it was something we should never ever try." Harada chuckled.

"I can imagine. Chou, particularly, isn't fond of firearms. She seems to know a lot about them, but doesn't like them being freely available. We tend to agree. Our laws on that sort of thing are very strict, especially to an American, or even a Canadian. But occasionally some low-level criminal gets his hand on a pistol or something along those lines, often as a result of an American serviceman deciding to supplement his pay." Harrison looked both annoyed and embarrassed.

"That shouldn't happen," he muttered. Agent Naito nodded.

"Agreed, but when we trace the serial numbers it's surprising how often they turn out to have been stolen from one of the military bases." After a moment, Sergeant Harada continued.

"Even the Yakuza tend to come down pretty hard on any of their people who do that nowadays, since the laws were made much more restrictive a few years ago, they've tended to think that guns draw too much attention. Anyway, using a gun on Yori or Chou would only make them very angry. The last time that happen some idiot from out of the area tried mugging Chou while waving a 9mm pistol in her face. That was a serious mistake. A bigger mistake was firing it at her."

Deveraux raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess, bullets bounce off them," she commented with mild sarcasm. He laughed.

"I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised. But in this case she just caught it." He looked at their expressions, even Agent Naito's, and laughed again. "Honest. She caught the damn thing three feet from the barrel, then took the gun away from him. Then she made him swallow the bullet. _Then_ she broke his arms." They all stared at him. "I'm not making it up. We recovered the round from the toilet a few hours later, matched it to the gun which had his fingerprints on it, and that was that. The fact that he had a visit from someone who was allegedly his lawyer, after which he confessed to every crime he'd ever committed, was a nice bonus. I don't know who the lawyer was but he scared the man shitless."

"She _caught_ the bullet..." Harrison repeated slowly. Harada nodded, looking highly amused.

"Yes. I couldn't believe it myself so she demonstrated. One of the most amazing things I've ever seen."

"Good god." Deveraux and Harrison looked at each other. "What else can they do, for god's sake?" Naito looked at them, then smiled.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I don't have a complete list, they seem to pull new tricks out of the woodwork quite often, but let's see. They can turn invisible, you've seen that. They can run at some ridiculous speed, at least a hundred and twenty kilometres per hour, jump six stories off a building without effort, more impressively jump back again, reportedly are strong enough to pick up a car..." Harada nodded.

"I've seen that myself. It was a large van, in fact."

"...pick up a van, have insane martial arts skills, some form of healing ability we don't have much information on, and can manipulate energy to form projectiles, beams, cutting implements, not to mention all the other magic stuff that's less identifiable."

There was silence for some time. Eventually Deveraux asked quietly, "Are all the magical girls like that?"

"No, like I said those two are in a class of their own. Most of the others don't have anything even approaching that level of martial arts or combat ability, while some of them are possibly considerably more powerful in raw magical output. I'd put Yori and Chou up against any of them, though, the mix of ability, talent, and experience they have is so far unbeatable. They have in fact gone up against a lot of the others at one point or another, either just for fun or to stop them causing a mess. They've won every time to date, often within seconds. We have reports that a lot of the more difficult groups are terrified of them now, they stay well away from here. Which is presumably the point."

"Wow."

There was silence for a while as their food arrived and they began eating. Harrison chewed absent-mindedly, still thinking about everything he'd been hit with in the last couple of hours, trying to fit it into his world-view, which was having to be severely bent to make this work. After several minutes he put his fork down and stared out the window, making Deveraux look at him with some concern. Harada and Naito exchanged glances. "This is all insane," he muttered, swallowing his last bite. The others all looked at him, waiting for him to go on. After a long pause he did so. "How can you all be so blasé about it? Doesn't it bother you? School-girls with the power of a division of armour running around the place, with no controls on them? Why doesn't the whole world know about all this?" He looked like he was staring down the barrel of a gun. He _felt_ that staring down the barrel of a gun would be an improvement, it was at least something familiar and understandable. The two Japanese men exchanged glances again, then Naito spoke.

"You get used to it." At the expression on the face of the American, he raised a hand. "No, I'm not being flippant. You _do_ get used to it. We've been getting used to it for several decades now, one way or another. The last twenty years or so, things changed, got more intense, and I don't know why. I don't think anyone does. These girls, and I'd love to know why, at least here, it's always girls, despite everything are more of a solution than a problem. Yes, in a rational world, they probably wouldn't exist, neither would the demons, magic, all that sort of thing, but we don't live in a rational world. All of that provably exists. As long as the threat exists, it's good that we have an effective defence. From what I've been told over the years, this sort of thing has been going on all over the world for a very long time indeed, but for some reason, here and now, it's much more visible." Harrison didn't look much happier.

"Why the whole world doesn't know about it I have no idea. To be fair, it's not that the world doesn't know, we haven't gone to any great effort to keep it secret, it's more like the world doesn't notice, or perhaps care. My own theory is that it's all tied up with the magic in general. Unless you're personally involved in it somehow, even in as simple a way as living next to it, you basically don't notice. Whether that's true I don't know, but it makes a weird sort of sense. Like I said earlier, it seems to mainly be North Americans, and people from the US specifically, that have so much trouble accepting it. A lot of the world has similar things going on although in different ways. We do seem to be the leaders in this sort of odd occurrence here in Minato, though." He shrugged. "I don't have any real answers for you. All I can advise is that you accept it's real, learn to live with it, and move on. It doesn't fundamentally change the job we all have. Just think of Yori, Chou, and all the other magical girls as people who do much the same job you do, keep order in the face of an insane world, but have rather different methods and skills."

"But they don't have the training, the authority, anything!" Lieutenant Harrison had his head in his hands looking very depressed and almost angry. Harada smiled a little.

"I think you're wrong. Yori and Chou, at least, have more training under their belts than entire combat squads. Unconventional training to be sure, but effective and I have no doubt the result of an extraordinary amount of work and practice. Many years of it. The magic, where that comes from I have no idea, but even there I would think it's also the result of a vast amount of training. As far as the authority goes, they have that as well. Unofficially they're given a lot of leeway, but to their credit don't take unfair advantage of it. When police involvement is required or possible we get notified and take over. When they deal with something themselves, either they didn't need us, or we couldn't have done anything anyway. The community supports them, the government supports them although very quietly, and to date none of the magical girls have let us down. The only downside, the collateral damage, seems to be resolving itself as a direct result of our two young friends."

Naito grinned. "You have SWAT in LA? Special weapons and tactics. From what I can remember, the LAPD practically invented it. If it helps, think of our special talent as something like that." Deveraux laughed delightedly.

"SMAT? Special magic and talismans?" Sergeant Harada looked very amused.

"Perhaps MGAW? Magical girls and weapons?" The two of them spent the next few minutes coming up with increasingly unlikely acronyms for magical girl support teams, while Harrison watched and listened with irritated disbelief. Eventually he picked up his fork and resumed eating.

"You're all crazy," he growled, prompting Agent Naito to smile again.

"Probably. But it comes with the job. At least it's not as bad as Nerima." Deveraux looked at him curiously.

"What's Nerima?" Harada took a drink of coffee then signalled to the waitress for a refill.

"It's another ward of Tokyo, perhaps thirty kilometres to the north-west. They don't get demon attacks, as far as I know, but they have a bad infestation of martial artists. It's kind of a tradition there. They're even worse than the magical girls, some of them are nearly as powerful from what I've heard, but even less predictable. They seem to spend most of their time beating each other up, which is very hard on the scenery. I've heard things about that place that make me glad to be living here in Minato where life is fairly normal." Both overseas police stared at him as if he was mad.

"Martial artists?" Harrison echoed. "Like Karate, Judo, that sort of thing?" Harada nodded.

"More or less. But in a lot of cases taken to ridiculous extremes. A lot less magic, although I believe they're not unfamiliar with it, but the abilities of some of that group rival some of our girls. I've heard things about a few of them that might even exceed them. There was one martial artist, who vanished some years ago, that had some incredible stories... surrounding..." He trailed off, looking puzzled, with a growing expression of deep thought. The others looked at him for a moment, but when he didn't resume talking, turned to Naito questioningly. The agent shrugged. He had no idea what Harada was thinking about.

"He's right, though. The file on Nerima is even larger than on Minato, and that file is _huge_. It's a very weird place. The damage isn't on the same scale, on a per-incident basis at least, but there were a hell of a lot of incidents. It's calmed down quite a bit in the last few years for some reason, but it's still very strange."

"Japan is nuts," Harrison said morosely. Naito smiled, unoffended.

"So I'm told."

When the meal was finished they ordered desserts, Harada rousing himself from his introspection long enough to make a quick selection from the menu before resuming silent thought. Eventually he shook his head a little, muttered something to himself that none of them could make out, and rejoined the world at large. "So, what are you plans for the rest of the day? Until Yori and Chou get back to us there isn't a lot we can do on your case." Deveraux finished her third cup of coffee and put the empty cup back down with a clunk.

"I haven't got anything particular planned. Richard?" Harrison shook his head, still trying to get to grips with the curve balls life seemed to be throwing him at the moment. His Canadian colleague shot him a sympathetic glance, then looked back to Sergeant Harada. "What would you suggest?"

"Well, you could do the usual tourist things, see the sights, all that sort of thing, or I could show you around the district. As long as I'm assigned to this case I'm off duty as far as normal work is concerned, and it's probably better to be out walking around that sitting back at the station. It's a nice day, after all." The two visitors glanced at each other then nodded.

"That's fine as far as I'm concerned. Lead on, Sergeant." She smiled at him. Waving the waitress over, Agent Naito settled the bill, then stood.

"I have to get back and report. I'll be around when our magical friends call. You have my cell number if you need me before them. Enjoy your stay, and please stay out of the way if a demon attacks." He grinned at their expressions then left, whistling to himself, apparently in quite a good mood.

"Demons. Magical girls. This place is insane." Harrison grumbled to himself as they left the restaurant. Deveraux sighed a little.

"So you keep saying, but it won't change the facts. Just go with the flow, Richard, you'll probably be a lot happier." He didn't look convinced but shrugged.

The sergeant spent the next couple of hours showing his guests around the district, including the university, the main shopping area, and the entertainment zones and parks. They ended up in one large park, next to a perfectly circular pond with a number of ducks happily swimming around in it. Sitting on a bench overlooking it Harada waved at the pond. "There you are." The other two looked puzzled for a moment, before Harrison's eyes widened.

"Holy crap. You don't mean..." Harada nodded with a smile crossing his face.

"Yes. The duck pond option, courtesy of Yori." Deveraux walked closer to the edge and looked at the inner surface of the depression in the ground. It was seamless glass like obsidian. Kneeling down and running a fingertip over it, she looked impressed.

"That's remarkable. The amount of heat it would take to fuse the soil like this is... unbelievable." Standing she rejoined her colleagues. "And one smallish woman did this all by herself?" Harada leaned back comfortably on the bench.

"Oh, yes. With no real effort from what I could see. I strongly suspect she could do a much bigger one if necessary. Hopefully, it never will be."

"Christ," Harrison muttered, staring at the pond filling the crater. Harada grinned at him.

"It _is_ fairly impressive. She was very apologetic about the damage to the park, but the park authorities were pretty relaxed about it. Apparently they were thinking about making another pond anyway and this was easy to convert. It certainly doesn't leak, the slag lining is about ten centimetres thick." He laughed. "It would have cost a fortune to make something like this deliberately. They grumbled a bit about it being in the wrong place, but I think they were secretly quite pleased that they'd saved hundreds of thousands of yen. The thing was full of water with benches around it almost before it had time to cool down."

"That's a very pragmatic attitude," Deveraux commented with amusement. Harada nodded.

"We tend to be around here. Goes with the territory." After a while Harrison stopped staring at the hole, shook his head in worried wonder, then looked towards a small crowd near the middle of the park from which music could be heard coming.

"What's going on over there?" he asked curiously. Harada looked in that direction as well, then shrugged.

"I'm not sure. We have a number of bands and individuals who perform in the park on an impromptu basis, I'd guess that's where the music is coming from. Let's go and have a look." The three law enforcement officers made their way over to the crowd to find a small group of musicians of the electronic persuasion playing a number of fast, high energy techno sets with a couple of synthesisers, some guitars, and an electronic drum machine. A fair number of younger people were dancing to the music and there was an overall air of conviviality that was quite refreshing. Several enterprising food vendors had parked their carts around the crowd and were doing a brisk business in food and water. The late afternoon sun was brightly lighting the scene, which was one of people making the most out of one of the last nice days before it started to get cold.

Even though the music as decidedly modern and very fast, there were quite a lot of older people who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it. A few of them greeted Sergeant Harada as he and the two visitors joined the crowd. Exchanging greetings with them he smiled happily. "This is what I like about living and working here, in this district, you see," he explained. "People are generally friendly and open, much more so than in some places. It's an affluent area, but not snobbish like some places of this nature can be. Even the university students are surprisingly well behaved for the most part, although they can certainly enjoy themselves." He looked around the scene with a contented expression. "I put quite a lot of that down to a positive influence from two specific young women. Just by fixing a number of small things, the knock on effects are impressive. And of course, every now and then, they deal with something very big."

"Thank you, Sergeant, that's very nice of you, but I don't think we can take _that_ much credit for it," said an amused voice from immediately behind him. He jumped a little, turning his head to see Chou smiling at him serenely. He grinned back while Harrison and Deveraux stared slightly, they'd had no warning at all the woman was approaching.

"Hello, Chou. Where's Yori?" The blonde women nodded towards the edge of the park.

"She's coming in a moment, she was checking up on something we detected earlier. We've contacted most of the people we needed to, there are still a few that we have to track down. So far no luck but we're expecting several responses over the next few hours to a day." Looking at the two foreigners, she asked, "Have you had a nice time so far?" Deveraux smiled back.

"Yes, thank you. This is a very interesting place, there seems to be quite a lot going on." Chou looked pleased.

"There often is. It starts to quieten down at this time of year, it's beginning to get a bit cold for playing in the park, for example, but it can get very exuberant during the summer. We had a particularly nice one this year." Turning to look at the musicians she listened for a moment. "This group is very good. I rather like the electronic music genre, although not everyone does. They're very talented, they can play classical music as well as this fast dance stuff extremely well." Harrison studied her for a moment.

"Do you live in this area, Miss Chou?" She smiled.

"Just Chou. And yes, Yori and I are both residents of the district. You'll understand if I don't say anything more about it." He nodded thoughtfully.

"Secret identities, I suppose?" She grinned.

"Something like that." He shook his head in a certain amount of wonder.

"I still can't believe I'm somewhere where there are honest-to-god superheroes." Chou laughed.

"Oh, it's not like that, not really. We just happen to have some specific skills and abilities that are a good match for the slightly odd problems that Minato suffers from. We do what we can to help." The Lieutenant inspected her some more, then nodded.

"OK. We may have slightly different definitions at work, but I can accept that." She grinned at him.

"It's a lot to take in if you haven't come across it before, I do understand that. Even people from outside this ward tend to look askance at it and they come from the same culture. I'm not surprised you're having difficulty, but you'll get used to it." The woman glanced off to the side. "Ah, Yori is here." They all looked in time to see the smaller young woman with the long braided hair take a huge running jump off the roof of the nearest building, some four stories high, clearing an impossible twenty metres horizontally to land neatly in the middle of the open space that suddenly developed in the crowd as many of the bystanders also noticed her approach. Deveraux and Harrison gaped at the incredible leap as Chou giggled. "She likes to make an entrance when she's in a good mood. Even more so when she isn't."

The young woman approached them through the crowd, smiling and greeting at least as many of them as the sergeant had. The expressions of the bystanders showed considerable affection for the remarkable person walking through them, without the kind of awe that the two North Americans would somehow have expected. It was more a sort of easy and respectful familiarity than anything else. Deveraux found it very interesting. Yori stopped close to them and grinned. "Hi, guys. How's your afternoon been so far?" Deveraux grinned back. There was something about the young woman that inspired a considerable amount of trust, she found, now that the incredulity of their first encounter was slightly diminished. She was a very likeable person once you got past the magical powers and all the associated impossibilities.

"It's been very nice. The sergeant here has taken us to a very good restaurant, then shown us all sorts of interesting things in the area. How has your search gone? Chou told us you had detected something?" Harrison and Harada listened with interest. Yori shook her head, looking momentarily slightly disappointed.

"A portal opened up very near here so I checked it out just in case. It was only some friends of ours on a shopping trip again." She glanced at Chou with a wry smile. "Uthryyl is going to clean the wholesalers out at this rate." Chou laughed. The other three looked puzzled, which the black-haired woman noticed. "Uthryyl is a trader from one of the more interesting demon worlds, who has a nice little business going importing chocolate and coffee, amongst other things, to his home. He and his crew turn up a few times a year and buy up tons of the stuff, then ship it back. He must be raking it in, this is about the fourth time in the last eight months." Deveraux and Harrison exchanged wide-eyed glances.

"Are you telling me that there are some demons who are walking into shops and buying _chocolate?_" Harrison asked incredulously. Yori nodded, grinning.

"Yep."

"What the hell do they pay with?" he demanded, looking stunned.

"Mostly gold and silver ingots. Almost pure. They have an arrangement with several local wholesalers who are more than happy to sell them anything they want." Yori seemed very amused by the expressions he and Deveraux were wearing.

"Do these traders know who they're dealing with?" Chou smiled.

"Oh, yes, definitely. They don't mind. A customer is a customer, even if they do have tails." Deveraux shook her head slowly while Harrison closed his eyes for a moment.

"This is a very strange place," he mumbled. Yori chuckled.

"Oh, it is that, but it's a lot of fun most of the time." Growing more serious, she added, "I told him about our little problem as well. He doesn't know anything but he's going to check around. That deals with pretty much every avenue I can think of to find our targets, now we just have to wait for everyone to get back to us."

"Can this... well, '_demon_', I suppose, can he be trusted?" Harrison asked. Yori nodded with a sparkle in her eyes.

"Certainly. He may look different but he's a decent person. I trust him a lot, I've know him for quite some time." A voice calling her name attracted her attention and she turned. A small group of young men and women were approaching, apparently students from the university.

"Um, Yori? Hi?" one of the young women hesitantly said. At the black-haired woman's nod she looked slightly braver. "Um, we were wondering, um, if you and Chou could do a demonstration for us? Please?" Her voice wavered a little and she glanced at her companions, who urged her on. Yori shot Chou a look, the blonde woman nodding slightly with a small smile. Harrison looked at Deveraux for a moment, not knowing what the woman had said as she'd spoken in Japanese.

"Of course. We'd be happy to." Turning to the three police officers she smiled. "This happens every now and then. It's good practice." Both martial artist magical girls followed the group of students to a position a few metres closer to the band, who noticed and nudged each other. Sergeant Harada grinned at his overseas colleagues.

"This should be good. Watch carefully, you won't see anything like this anywhere else I suspect." Harrison and Deveraux exchanged looks, wondering what was going to happen. The crowd was whispering to itself, people pulling out cameras and camcorders, moving back and creating a circle some twenty-five metres across with Yori and Chou in the middle and the band at one side. Harada and the others were almost directly opposite. Stepping back a couple of metres from each other, Yori and Chou locked eyes, bowing formally to each other without shifting their gazes. The band kept playing but their sound engineer slowly lowered the volume to a nice background level. Returning to an upright position, a brief grin flickered across Yori's face to be met with an answering smile from Chou.

There was a pregnant pause during which only the music could be heard, the crowd having gone completely silent, before Yori made the first move. Too quickly to be seen as anything other than a blur her right foot suddenly moved from the ground to a position a centimetre from her partners shoulder, where it stopped dead. Maintaining this unlikely stance for a second, Yori then returned the foot to the ground as quickly. Chou hadn't so much as blinked. Harrison sucked in his breath, the speed of the move was unbelievable. "Holy shit..." he muttered quietly.

A slight pause, then Chou responded, stepping forward gracefully with her left hand shooting forward to just touch Yori's forehead, again so fast that it basically disappeared from her side and reappeared, completely still, in it's end position. Once more there was a slight pause before she reset to her start position. Both women smiled very slightly at each other. "And we begin..." Yori said, with a quick glance directly at Harrison and Deveraux, who took a few seconds to note that she'd spoken English presumably for their benefit.

Then they began.

"Oh, holy mother of..." Harrison stared in complete disbelief. Deveraux couldn't even manage that much. Both women were suddenly trading blows so fast they could barely be seen, blocking with loud cracks of flesh against flesh, jumping, rolling, flipping over each other in a way that was completely implausible. It looked like some particularly good movie special effect fighting sped up by several times, except it was really happening. The sheer speed was breathtaking, while the appalling power behind the blows became apparent when Chou buried her fist to the elbow into the hard packed ground when one punch was deflected, with a sound like a hammer hitting a steak, then pulled it out again effortlessly in a shower of earth. Deveraux watched open-mouthed, glancing at her colleague to see he was doing the same.

Yori performed a standing backflip that took her over three metres straight up to land lightly on one foot on her partners head, who looked around quizzically as if wondering where she'd gone. The crowd, which had been watching engrossed, laughed delightedly. Rolling her eyes upwards Chou mock-sighed, then shot sideways a couple of paces fast enough that the other woman hung in the air for a fraction of a second before dropping to the ground. Landing lightly she smiled at the blonde, before bowing slightly. Harrison and Deveraux noticed with wonder that neither of them seemed to even be breathing hard. Again they began exchanging blows, this time with an obviously completely different style although at least as fast as before.

Once more they broke apart, grinning at each other, before taking up a pose like a pair of fencers, only without any foils. Deveraux gasped out loud when they were suddenly holding what looked for all the world like a pair of light sabres straight from the movies, about a metre long and glowing brightly, Yori's a pretty purple colour and Chou's a beautiful golden-white shade. The crowd clapped happily. The young woman whose request had prompted the bout stepped forward holding a piece of branch she had picked off the ground, looking at Yori questioningly. The martial artist nodded with a smile, and the student tossed the metre long five centimetre thick branch directly at her. Waiting until it was almost close enough to touch, the black-haired woman became a blur of movement and flashing purple arcs as her energy sword flashed into action with a throbbing hum, only to stop less than half a second later in a completely still pose with the glowing blade held upright in front of her. The branch continued it's flight past her apparently unaffected, until it hit the ground and burst into dozens of neatly cut slices, each apparently identical in thickness to the others, all of them smoking slightly. Once more the crowd applauded.

Harrison looked at Deveraux who stared back, unable to think of anything to say. They looked back as the two combatants resumed their fencing stance, then began sparring with the energy blades. Once more it was like a particularly good scene from a movie, only this time a science fiction one, as the blades roared past each other, clashing together with showers of light and a screeching sound. The crowd watched in awe as the pair fought, beginning to leap and roll as well. Within seconds they were jumping around as fast as before, slashing at each other from unlikely positions, including while one of them was flipping through the air above the other. When, half-way through the match, they each produced a second energy blade in their free hand and began using them as well, the crowd roared approval, really getting into the spirit of it. Harrison was mumbling to himself while Deveraux half-listened, her eyes fixed on the impossible sight in front of her.

After a few minutes, both the magical girls slowed then halted, once more back in their start positions. Both the energy blades disappeared. They bowed slightly to each other, then paused, before Chou grinned and bent down to pick up a number of the segments of sliced branch, each roughly three centimetres long. Yori nodded, then the blonde turned slightly to face into the park, away from the buildings. Leaning back a little Chou bounced one of the slices in her right hand for a moment, gauging it's weight, before throwing it straight up at a speed that made Deveraux blink. She almost expected to hear a sonic boom. The bit of wood travelled less than fifty metres before Yori had whipped her hand out, targeted it, and fired some sort of energy beam from her palm that intercepted the projectile with perfect accuracy. It disappeared with a flash of purple light and a sharp crack. Once more the crowd clapped, while the two visiting police officers stared. Chou threw another piece of wood and the same thing happened. Yori grinned and motioned with her other hand. The blonde laughed a little then blurred into action throwing the remainder of her ammunition so fast that no one else could see the individual motions. Yori waited for half a second or so until all the pieces were on their way before going into action herself, firing off a number of beams so quickly it looked like they were simultaneous, each one intercepting a piece of branch before any of them had travelled more than a hundred metres. Several reports sounded so close together that there was just a ripple of sound. Chou laughed again.

"You missed one," she said, loud enough for everyone to hear her. Yori shook her head with a smile.

"No, I let it get away. It should be on it's way back down around... now, and it will be... right... there!" She raised her hand over her shoulder and fired a final beam without looking, scoring a direct hit on the piece of wood which was dropping out of the sky a few metres above her head. Chou bowed mockingly.

"Well done." Yori returned the bow.

"Thank you." The crowd laughed, amused and impressed. Even Deveraux giggled, although it was more in shock than anything else.

The two women stepped forward and shook hands, smiling, then stepped back. This time they began slowly, not touching each other, running through a stylised set of moves which both visitors recognised as a training exercise or kata. Mirroring each other the two women flowed from position to position with incredible grace and precision, speeding up until they were moving faster than most people could manage for more than a few seconds, with no sign of effort. Both were smiling, obviously enjoying themselves. The crowd watched silently, almost everyone lost in the beauty and grace of the motion. After half a minutes or so the band, which had been playing quietly the whole time, stopped and huddled together, talking quickly until they reached a consensus. Moving back to their instruments they began another set, a fast electronic dance tune that matched the movements of the two martial artists remarkably well. The sound man turned the volume up, making Yori quickly glance at him for a moment, then nod with an approving smile. Looking back to her partner, they exchanged glances and understanding, before subtly altering the pace of their movements to sync with the music.

The kata flowed into a different style, speeding up slightly. The band increased their tempo a little to match. Yori and Chou both grinned to each other, changing styles and speeds again. Yet again, the musicians adapted to keep the beat in sync, all of them grinning as well. The crowd watched, fascinated, while the martial arts demo got set to music. After a few more changes of style and tempo Yori nodded slightly and everyone stared as the two martial artists' hands began to glow in their signature colours, trails of diffuse light following their movements, slowly fading. The crowd clapped wildly, several younger people beginning to dance around the area in the middle where the magical girls were practising their Art.

The dance music changed suddenly to a much quicker beat, becoming harder and much more electronic in nature. Yori laughed out loud, both of them flowing into a completely different style without missing a beat. The trails of light from their fingertips formed spirals around them as they moved in sync, truly dancing now as much as practising. Chou actually had her eyes closed, Deveraux noticed, a beautiful contented smile on her face. Yori looked at her in a way that left no doubt just how she felt about the other woman, unconcerned who saw it.

The impromptu martial arts dance sequence lasted for nearly fifteen minutes, speeding up and slowing down, going through so many different styles of martial arts that everyone lost count. When they wound down the band slowed, the volume dropping, until they came to a halt, completely still and facing each other. After a pause in complete silence they bowed to each other, then turned to each face in different directions, bowing to the crowd. There was a moment's more silence, then tumultuous applause. Startled at the sheer noise Deveraux and Harrison both looked around to see that the circle of people had swollen in size by several times, there must have been over a thousand people standing there by now. Grinning happily Yori and Chou glanced at each other then slowly returned to the three police officers, being stopped and thanked by person after person.

When they finally reached the others Deveraux raised an eyebrow when she noticed that they still looked completely unaffected by the enormous exertion of the last half hour or more, neither sweating nor breathing hard. '_Their stamina must be absolutely inhuman,_' she thought. Out loud she said, "That was the most incredible thing I've ever seen." Harada, slightly behind her, laughed.

"I told you."

"That you did, Sergeant."

Yori grinned. "Glad you enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. We didn't expect that last part with the music, but it worked really well. We'll have to try it again some time." Chou smiled.

"We don't often show off like that, but every now and then people ask, and it only seems polite to agree. It's fun, as Yori says, and good practice as well. We'd be doing it anyway in private. This way people get some enjoyment as well, which is nice."

"Good public relations as well, I would imagine," commented Harrison absently, staring at the pair of them as if he was having trouble believing what he was seeing. Glancing sharply at him Yori nodded after a moment.

"I suppose so, Lieutenant, although I wouldn't put it like that. We don't need, I hope, demonstrations like that to have good relations with the community. That was just because someone asked politely." Looking at her he nodded, understanding what she meant.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you or Chou." The martial artist grinned again.

"Don't worry, you didn't, we take a lot of insulting. I know what you meant, trust me. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. We certainly did." She glanced at her companion for a moment. "We need to be going now, lots to do. We'll be in touch soon, hopefully. Have fun exploring until then." She waved to them, nodded politely to Harada who smiled back, then ran off, leaping back onto the building she'd descended from in the first place. Chou smiled briefly at them all then followed her. The three officers watched them disappear over the rooftops before Deveraux broke the silence.

"Good grief." Harada nodded.

"I know what you mean. It affected me that way the first time I saw them, and they've only become better since then. They were pretty incredible to start with." Harrison was still staring after the two women. Deveraux nudged him.

"You in there, Richard?" Shaking his head slightly, he turned to look at her.

"I'm really not sure any more. Did the last forty minutes actually happen?" She nodded with a slight smile. He shrugged. "Well, I guess I'm really here. I was beginning to wonder." Casting a glance at Harada who was watching him with interest he sighed. "And that's the sort of people you have around these parts?" Sergeant Harada nodded again, grinning.

"Pretty much. Like I said, those two are impressive even by magical girl standards, but yes, basically that's the sort of thing that goes on a lot in Minato. Not always just for public entertainment, although they do that _extremely_ well." He laughed. "Even the demon attacks get rated around here. People take bets on them, how long they'll last, how the demon will get dealt with, which other magical girls will get involved, how _they'll_ get dealt with, and so on. It's kind of a spectator sport." Shaking his head slowly Harrison glanced one last time in the direction the two women had disappeared in before looking back to the Japanese officer.

"Have I said that Japan is nuts?"

"Repeatedly."

"Good. Just checking."

They exchanged a look, then smiled a little. Deveraux watched with a feeling of mild disbelief herself, the demonstration by the two women had been so far beyond anything she could have expected, even with the knowledge of what they were, that she was still stunned. "How much of that do you think was for our benefit," she asked slowly as a thought struck her. Harada glanced at her and shrugged.

"I'm not sure, but I suspect some of it was aimed at you, certainly. I think she wanted you to understand what they were capable of, and short of a demon attack which no one wants, this was the best way." He paused for a moment, thinking, then added, "One thing you should realise, though, is that what you saw is only part of it. I know for a fact that they can both move a lot faster than that if they want for example, they never show off more than the necessary amount of power. It's a sound tactical move, not to let a potential enemy know everything about yourself." Deveraux and Harrison both nodded in understanding. As the crowd dispersed, the band going back to a dance track and more students turning up while the older people wandered off, the three resumed slowly strolling across the park. The sky was beginning to darken as early evening came closer.

"I'm still having trouble with the concept of demons, especially ones that wander around buying chocolate and coffee, for heaven's sake." Harrison shook his head in disbelief. Sergeant Harada smiled at this.

"I can understand that. It was a surprise to me as well when Yori mentioned it the first time. I haven't met this Uthryyl, but I have met a few other '_visitors_' she's introduced me to over the years. Unusual people to be sure, but generally polite and easy to deal with." He laughed. "Once you get past the odd appearance of some of them they're just people." Harrison seemed slightly unsure, Deveraux noticed, but said nothing.

Eventually they went back to the police station. "You two may as well go back to your hotels, I suppose," Harada said. "I have your cell numbers and I'll call you and Agent Naito immediately if Yori contacts me." Deveraux nodded.

Harrison asked, "What are you going to do now, Sergeant?"

"I should check in with the Captain, then I need to get home to my wife. Unless anything turns up I'll see you in the morning, Lieutenant, Inspector." He shook hands with both of them. "Oh, if you want to go out tonight, Roppongi is a short ride on the Metro from here. There are all sorts of entertainment possibilities there and some decent restaurants as well." He took a sheet of paper off a nearby desk and quickly wrote down some names, in both Kanji and English. "Here. These places are pretty good, these two are nightclubs and the rest are restaurants, except for this one which is a bar."

"Thanks, Sergeant." Deveraux accepted the paper, glancing at it before folding it and placing in into her pocket. "See you tomorrow." They left, while he headed for the Captain's office.

"Ah, Sergeant. How did it go today?" Captain Uehara looked up as he knocked on her open door. Entering the office he stood in front of the desk while she leaned back in her chair and watched him.

"Well, I think. Their introduction to our special talent was quite amusing, but Inspector Deveraux at least seemed to take it more or less in stride. I'm not so sure about Lieutenant Harrison, he seems to have more difficulty accepting it. Americans can be quite rigid in their denial of magic, in my experience." She nodded, understanding.

"Yes, I can imagine. You have quite a lot of experience with them, I understand."

"Oh, yes," he replied, smiling slightly. "My time in the US was a lot of fun and very educational, but I learned very early on to keep quiet about some of the more unusual aspects of life here. By and large they're very nice people, but some of their attitudes to life are... interesting, I suppose you could say. For a country with such a multicultural background it's odd that they seem to know so little about much of the rest of the world." He shrugged. "Not my place to criticise, I guess. Anyway, I think the Lieutenant will come around. Yori and Chou put on a demo in the park at the request of some university students, which was as spectacular as ever. Good timing as well. It drove home some of what they're going to have to accept." The captain smiled.

"I wish I'd seen it. I've heard some impressive things about their public demonstrations."

"The stories probably don't do it justice. Those two have a real flair for entertainment, as well as all the fighting." Harada laughed. "They could make an absolute fortune on TV or in the movies."

"I can well imagine. Good work, Sergeant. Keep me updated, please." He nodded at the implied dismissal, saluted, and left. The captain went back to her paperwork, a slight smile still on her lips.

Late that night Harrison was sitting in a bar just off the main entertainment district in Roppongi, near a restaurant that was on the list Sergeant Harada had given them. Idly stirring his half-drunk rum and coke with a straw he'd pulled from a dispenser of them on the counter he looked around, while Deveraux got the next round in. When she came back carrying two glasses he nodded his appreciation. "Thanks."

Sitting down next to him she glanced at his face. "You still look worried, Richard." He shrugged slightly, slowly stirring his drink.

"I guess I am. This whole experience is surreal. The case has been weird from the beginning, but I was always able to pass off the stranger aspects, at least to myself, as simply some sort of technology or trick I wasn't aware of. But now..." Trailing off he sighed, sticking the wet end of the straw in his mouth and licking the coke and alcohol from it before dropping it back in his glass. "I don't know. It's all a bit much, you know?" He looked a little lost. Laura Deveraux put her hand on his for a moment, then sipped her own gin and tonic.

"I know. I also know how much you've been resisting the possibility of magic. I've been open to it from much earlier on, but even so, having it rubbed in your face like that, like it's just a normal everyday part of life, is pretty weird." Waving a hand at the mass of people noisily enjoying themselves in the bar, she added, "I don't know how many of them know about all this, I'd assume quite a lot if not all, but no-one seems too upset. It's like Agent Naito said, you get used to it."

Slowly nodding, still concentrating on his drink, Harrison eventually replied, "I suppose. Doesn't make it any easier when you're dropped right in it." One corner of his mouth went up a little. "I was expecting a certain amount of culture shock, but..." She laughed gently.

"I know, Richard, I know."

They were silent for a while, drinking slowly and watching the night life of Roppongi go past. The crowd was a mix of obvious tourists, from many countries, locals, and Japanese people from other parts of the country. Various languages could be heard all around if you listened closely, English, German, Dutch, and many others standing out. Pretty much every person present seemed to be having a good time, some of them very loudly. The two of them had walked through an area close by which was an obvious red light district, and even there people seemed polite and pleasant. Deveraux turned to her colleague. "I wonder if the reason there seems to be so little trouble is due to the Japanese culture, or the magical girls?" He looked interested.

"I don't know. It's certainly less dangerous-feeling than an equivalent area back home, but at least as chaotic. If I visit a place like this in LA I always feel I should have one hand on my weapon." She smirked, sipping her drink.

"I know what you mean. Most of the US makes me feel that way."

"Very funny. You Canadians and your lack of arms are weird as well." He smiled at her without animosity, as she snorted into her glass.

"Americans."

Settling into a companionable silence the pair of them nursed their drinks while busy with their own thoughts. A particularly beautiful young girl, perhaps mid twenties, sidled up to Harrison and made polite enquiries as to whether he would like to partake of her services, in which, she assured him, she was both extremely skilled and reasonably priced. Ignoring Deveraux, who was giggling quietly to herself at this point, he turned the girl down as gently as possible. Not at all disappointed, she bowed slightly to him, thanked him for his time, and left, targeting another obvious foreigner across the room. Watching her go he smiled a little. "Even the prostitutes are polite. This is a very strange place." His companion was still giggling. "Oh, grow up, Laura. How old _are_ you?" She grinned at him.

"She was very pretty, and quite affordable." Laughing, he turned away from watching the girl, who seemed to have had more luck with her next potential customer.

"Yes to both, but I'm not interested." She teased him about it for some time, until she was approached in a similar manner by a very good looking young man, the male counterpart of the girl. Harrison snickered. Having some difficulty turning him down as he was somewhat more persistent Deveraux finally managed to push him off on to another woman at the next table, who seemed rather irritated about it. Looking at her friend she wryly smiled.

"OK, you can stop laughing now."

When they left the bar a while later, just after midnight, both were pleasantly tipsy although not really drunk. Looking at a map Deveraux had bought they decided to walk back to their hotel, it was only about five kilometres and they both felt the night air would clear their heads. About half-way they were passing through a less-travelled area that seemed to mainly be light commercial and industrial properties, when Harrison stopped. "Hey. What's that?" His companion also stopped, looking at him.

"What?"

"That sound. Can't you hear it? It sounds like a fight." She listened, and sure enough there were noises of several people making the sounds one, especially if one had a background in law enforcement, would think indicated some sort of physical altercation. Not much talking, although there were intermittent sounds of at least three people grunting and swearing, but quite a lot of meaty smacking noises and the occasional crunch. They exchanged glances, police instincts finally winning out over common sense.

"You realise we're in a foreign country and about as far out of our respective jurisdictions as we could possibly get," Deveraux said quietly, abruptly feeling completely sober as she watched Harrison pull out his weapon and check it before putting his hand in his pocket, still holding the gun. He nodded.

"I do, but that sounds nasty. I can't let it go, can you?" She paused for a moment, then sighing, did the same.

"No." Looking around they headed towards the alley the sounds seemed to be coming from. "We're going to get into trouble for this."

"Probably." They cautiously peered around the corner of the alley, allowing their eyes to adjust to the darker environment, seeing nothing but more clearly hearing the sounds. They were definitely coming from down there somewhere. The alley ran back alongside a large low warehouse for some fifty metres, going around a corner, presumably to the rear of the building. With a glance at his compatriot, Harrison took the lead, sidling carefully along the wall with Deveraux following him, glancing behind herself every now and then to make sure no-one snuck up on them. Once or twice she also looked upwards to check the roof-line. As they approached the end of the alley and the turn, the noises became louder and clearer. There were at least three female voices, and another one that intermittently sounded, much deeper and somehow worrying. Stopping a couple of metres from the corner Harrison looked back at Deveraux.

"Ready?" he whispered. She nodded silently, removing her weapon from concealment and holding it pointing up in both hands, according to the best practices of the RCMP. A flick of one finger released the safety. Nodding back at her he did the same, then slowly approached the corner, sticking his head just far enough past the corner for one eye to see what was going on. Deveraux watched his back stiffen slightly as he froze for several seconds, then as slowly retreated until he was back behind the protection of the wall again. "Fuck me," he said very very quietly, not really to her. She looked at his face in the dim lighting cast by the street lamp at the other end of the alley.

"What is it?" After a moment he looked at her, wide-eyed.

"I can't really do it justice. Have a look." Staring at him for a moment, she then slid past him and repeated the same exercise he'd just finished, with almost identical results. When she was back against the wall they looked at each other.

"Is that...?" she began.

"A demon? I think so."

"And those must be..."

"More magical girls, yes." She nodded absently, then slowly had another look.

There were three young women, somewhere around their late teens or so, surrounding a... _**thing**_. A fourth girl, dressed like the other three, in a remarkably immodest outfit that a professional stripper might be embarrassed to be seen in public wearing, was slumped apparently unconscious against the wall just around the corner, mere metres from them. There was a large dent in the brick wall which seemed to conform to the shape of her body unpleasantly well, implying that she'd hit it with enough force to pulp a normal human. The three other girls all bore evidence of having been in a serious fight, one of them limping a bit and all quite bloody. They were holding a series of weapons, ranging from some sort of sword to a pole-arm of a type neither officer was familiar with, all of which were glowing in various pastel hues.

Their opponent was _very_ clearly not human in the slightest. The enormous fangs were proof enough of that, never mind the dark scabrous skin, a colour they couldn't make out under the bad lighting, covering it from head to foot. The three legs and the tentacles were just icing on the cake. The tentacles, which were a couple of metres long, were tipped in ten-centimetre talons which seemed to be wet, one with what was clearly blood, the others something much worse and probably toxic. It had started with at least six of them but two were now writhing on the ground near it, like damaged worms. As she watched, one of the girls made a feint at the thing with her sword, while the one with the pole-arm dived forward, rolling across the ground and coming up inside the creature's defences, lopping off another tentacle before being batted away like she weighed nothing as the thing let out a screeching roar then swore in a guttural language unlike anything the inspector had ever heard.

All three conscious girls looked exhausted, while the demon, although injured, seemed to have an unpleasant amount of life left in it. Pulling her head back around the corner before any of the combatants noticed her, Inspector Laura Deveraux, RCMP, said with feeling, "Fucking Christ on a crutch." Harrison nodded silently.

"What do we do?" she asked after a few seconds.

"I don't know." He looked speculatively at his firearm. She shook her head.

"Do you think that will do anything other than annoy it?" Harrison shrugged.

"I don't know. Perhaps we could distract it, get it's attention, and they could take it out?"

"While it reduces us to hamburger, pissed off about being shot at?" she asked furiously. Looking at her, he shrugged again.

"Possibly. But if we just leave them it might end badly, they look like they're not coming out on top."

Deveraux sighed. "Fuck."

"Yep."

"We can't just open fire on it, it might distract them as well, which could be even worse." They thought for a moment, then Deveraux risked another look. The sounds from the fight were getting louder, but the girls seemed to be having trouble. One of them pulled some sort of device from her belt and pointed it at the demon, letting off a bright ball of energy that smacked into it's torso with a sizzling noise. As it stiffened in pain the swords-woman shot forwards and hacked at it's middle leg, carving a chunk out of it before being forced to retreat as it recovered. "Damn. It's not going their way," she said, glancing behind her at her companion. A sudden thought struck her. Pulling her ID out of her pocket she opened it so the badge in it was visible, then cautiously stuck her head around the corner yet again. Waiting until one of the girls, the shortest one, happened to look in her direction, she waved quickly, then held up her ID as the young woman paused and stared. Holding up her handgun she flipped the ID shut, pointed to the gun then the demon. The girl shook her head, alternating keeping an eye on the thing and looking at her.

Deveraux mimed shooting a gun, pointed at the demon, then made a little twirling motion with her finger to indicate it turning around. Pointing at the three girls she then tapped herself on the back of the head, then once more pointed at the demon, desperately hoping that the woman understood. Apparently she did, because she looked interested, then thoughtful. Covertly waving back to the officer she made a clearly recognisable 'hold on' gesture, before jumping backwards out of range of one of the thing's remaining tentacles which took her momentary inattention as an open invitation. Rolling her eyes for a moment she slashed at it with one of her blades, she was holding something that looked like a pair of highly stylised hand scythes, a weapon that Deveraux vaguely recognised from martial arts films but couldn't put a name to. The tentacle pulled back quickly and the girl whispered something quickly to her colleague, the swords-woman.

The taller girl looked startled and shot a glance at Deveraux, her eyebrows going up. After a moment she nodded, moving to cover the short girl as she dashed over and talked to the one with the pole-arm. This girl also glanced in the direction of the officer, nodding after a moment. "What's going on?" Harrison asked in a hoarse whisper.

"I think I've got them understanding that we can cause a distraction. They seem to be setting up for it. Hang on." All three girls were slowly manoeuvring around in a semicircle to put the demon between them and the corner of the alley. "Yep, they're getting into position. Get ready, and for god's sake don't miss, they're right on the other side of it." Harrison nodded, checking his weapon again out of habit. "OK... now!" The short girl waved urgently to her, and she dropped to one knee, taking careful aim at the top of the thing's back which was clearly exposed ten metres away. Harrison dived around the corner and did the same next to her. Both officers fired several rapid shots, most of the rounds hitting the demon, which emitted a horrendous roar, staggered, then spun around far faster than they were expecting something with that many holes in it to move. "Shit." Deveraux emptied her weapon into the creature's chest. Harrison stood, took careful aim, suddenly icy calm, and shot it twice in the face.

Unfortunately this only seemed to make it absolutely furious, all it's remaining tentacles shooting towards them far too fast to avoid. Just as both officers thought they were for it, the thing suddenly froze. Opening the eye which had involuntarily squeezed itself shut as the tentacle on the left had approached her face, Deveraux scrambled backwards as it slowly toppled forwards, it's cleanly severed head bouncing off the tarmac a metre to the side. The tall brunette with the pole-arm looked tiredly satisfied as she lowered her weapon. "Oh, holy god that was close," Harrison mumbled, slumping against the wall of the alley. Deveraux stood carefully as she watched the three girls walk over to the corpse and have a discussion in Japanese, their tiredness coming through clearly despite the foreign language. Nodding, the short girl put her weapons away then pulled out some sort of artefact, which she pointed at the body. Concentrating on it the device began to give off a lambent blue glow, while the corpse slowly crumbled away into dust. Within thirty seconds nothing was left. Deveraux and Harrison stared in amazement.

Putting the short metallic rod away somewhere, the girl sighed. Glancing at the two officers she nodded thanks, before suddenly catching sight of her injured colleague, gasping as she saw how injured the girl was. Swearing in Japanese she ran over, quickly checking her, the other two following only slightly more slowly. The foreigners watched with concern as she checked the young woman's vitals, sighing in relief when she found the girl was alive. Squatting back on her heels she looked up at Deveraux and said something. "Sorry, I don't speak Japanese," the woman said.

"Oh, right, you're not local. American?" the girl asked, switching to good if accented English. Deveraux shook her head.

"No, Canadian. RCMP." She pulled out her ID again and showed it to the girl. "My friend here is American. We're here on a case, luckily we have permission to carry our service weapons." She looked at the gun still in her right hand, then groaned. "But I don't know how we're going to explain this. Captain Uehara made it very clear indeed that we were only to use them as an absolutely last resort action." The girl stood, holding out her hand. She shook it.

"Don't worry, I'll explain it to her. I know some of her men, and she's in the district a couple of my friends work in. I don't think there will be any trouble. Thanks, by the way, that was getting nasty. I'm Aiko. This is Tamiko and Misaki, and on the ground is Fumiko." Deveraux nodded.

"Your friends? Would that be Yori and Chou, by chance?" Aiko stared, then nodded herself.

"That's them. You know them?"

"We're actually working with them. It's a complicated story, a case from North America that ended up here with some magical help. Sergeant Harada introduced us." Aiko looked interested.

"Ah, the good sergeant. I like him a lot. Hmm, I'd like to hear more about that case at some point, but we have to get Fumiko some help. That damn thing was vicious, and it's two friends were worse."

"There are more of them?" Harrison asked, looking around with a worried expression. Tamiko snickered nastily.

"Not any more." Aiko looked at her friend, smiling a little, then produced a cell-phone. Hitting a speed-dial number she waited for it to be answered then spoke rapidly into it. Listening for a moment she nodded to herself, then replied at length, looking at Harrison and Deveraux while she did. The latter was sure she heard her and her friend's name come up. Nodding again the young woman listened for a moment, then hung up after a couple more words.

"OK, we're going to meet Yori and Chou at a safe-house. Would you like to come as well? Apparently it's quite close to your hotel." Glancing at Deveraux, Harrison smiled uncertainly.

"Well, it's kind of you to offer, but is your friend all right to be carried all that way? Perhaps we should call for an ambulance." Aiko laughed.

"Sorry, I forgot, you're not familiar with all this. Yori explained. No, we're going to teleport. I can manage all of us." Harrison stared at her with wide eyes.

"Teleport?"

"Oh, yes. It's the best way to travel." She grinned at him. Looking at Inspector Deveraux, he shrugged. She returned the shrug.

"Um, OK, I guess. Why not?" Aiko smiled.

"Great. One thing, the first time will probably make you really dizzy for a few seconds, so be ready for it. It's safe otherwise, though." Misaki knelt and carefully picked up the other young woman, who both visitors noticed bore a strong resemblance to the brunette. She noticed them noticing.

"She's my sister," the brunette girl said shortly. Deveraux nodded understanding.

"OK, stand here, please," Aiko said, indicating a spot in front of her. With a glance at his colleague Harrison followed the instructions, as did the other officer. Satisfied, Aiko checked her colleagues, then did _something_. The world flickered, and both police officers staggered.

"Oh, hell!" Deveraux moaned, stumbling. Someone steadied her, guiding her to a chair, which she dropped into with gratitude, leaning back and feeling the world spin around her for a short time. She could vaguely hear Harrison making noises that indicated he was trying not to vomit. When her equilibrium settled to the point she could open her eyes without feeling like she was going to puke, she cautiously looked around. Surprisingly the nausea had subsided nearly as rapidly as it had come on, leaving her slightly dizzy but no worse than a couple of drinks. Which, she suddenly remembered, she had had. '_Ah_,' she thought to herself ruefully.

She and Harrison were in a biggish room, which had a window through which she could see a street a couple of floors below. In the distance she saw the lights of several large buildings. She was sitting in a chair with Harrison beside her in another one, still looking slightly pale. Aiko stood next to them, watching them carefully. "It hits almost everyone like that the first time, sometimes worse. Chou was puking for five minutes. Yori, of course, didn't even notice." She grinned. "Feel OK now?"

"More or less. That was a very strange experience." The petite brunette looked amused.

"You get used to it." Looking past her, Deveraux saw a fold-out sofa bed which had Fumiko lying on it, with Yori, Chou, and the remainder of Aiko's team standing around it. Chou was carefully going over the unconscious young woman, speaking quietly to Yori while the black-haired girl nodded. Pushing herself to her feet the inspector walked over, followed by Aiko.

"How is she?" she asked. Chou glanced up.

"Six broken ribs, two crushed vertebrae, ruptured spleen, punctures to her liver and one kidney, broken collarbone, and a broken ankle. Not to mention a slow-acting poison of some sort. Nothing too serious." Deveraux gaped at her, horrified.

"_Nothing too serious! _Are you mad? She'll be lucky to live, never mind ever walk again with injuries like that." Chou smiled gently.

"Don't worry, Inspector. We're quite good at this." She looked at her partner. "You want to do the organs while I do the bones?" Yori nodded. Kneeling down, one on each side of the injured girl, the pair stretched out their hands, placing them on specific parts of her body. Deveraux gasped in shock as a glow appeared between their hands and the girl's body. She twitched a little, Chou quickly placing one glowing hand on her forehead for a second. The young woman suddenly relaxed completely and the blonde nodded, satisfied, returning her hand to the operation in progress. Looking to the side as she felt someone come up beside her, Deveraux nodded to Harrison, then followed his amazed gaze back to the scene on the bed.

After a few seconds Chou looked pleased. "Good, the ribs are done. Misaki, can you hold her leg still, please? Aiko, hold her foot. Yes, like that. Right, don't move." Once more she touched the girl and the glow returned. Thirty seconds passed until she smiled. "Done. It will ache for a day or two, I think, but it's fixed." She turned her attention to the young woman's upper torso. This time the glow lasted nearly a minute. When she had finished Yori was still slowly moving her hands across Fumiko's lower torso, concentrating. "How's it going?"

"Her spleen was a mess, I practically had to rebuild it from scratch. I'm doing the liver now," the black-haired woman said absently. Harrison glanced at Deveraux, shock and awe in his eyes. She nodded a little knowing exactly what he was feeling. In many ways this was by far the most impressive and startling thing she'd seen in a day of incredibly startling and impressive things. Chou passed the time until Yori was finished by erasing a number of cuts and scrapes on Fumiko's chest and arms. Deveraux gaped as her glowing hand passed slowly along the bleeding skin, leaving no marks behind at all.

"Holy crap," she mumbled. Chou looked at her for a moment with a smile.

"I prefer this to killing things, I have to admit. It's more worthwhile, but sometimes we have to do things we don't like." The officer nodded slowly, understanding.

"Do you have medical training other than this... whatever the hell it is that you're doing?" Chou looked back to her work.

"Yes. Quite a lot of it. This would be much more difficult otherwise. You have to know how things are meant to work to be able to put them back together. That said, Yori invented this technique years ago before she learned medicine and did pretty well." Her partner shot her a quick smile. A few seconds later she sat back.

"Right. All done. Just the spinal stuff now. We need to roll her over, very carefully. Excuse me." She stood and politely elbowed the observing people out of the way, Chou matching her position on the other side of the bed. "OK. Careful." They slowly and gently rolled the girl over onto her stomach. Harrison looked away, nauseated. "Ick. That's pretty unpleasant." This was a mild description, the young woman's back looked like someone had tried to scrape it raw with a concrete block, which was more or less accurate. Bone showed through in a couple of places and there was a lot of raw flesh and blood. The two magical girls looked at each other, sighed simultaneously, and got to work.

Ten minutes later Deveraux was genuinely stunned. She had just seen injuries that by rights should have been rapidly fatal anywhere outside a major trauma centre, and probably permanently life-altering under even the best prognosis, healed to the point that there was no evidence of them at all. Fumiko was now lying on her back on a bed that had had it's bloody coverings replaced by Chou once they had finished, apparently sleeping comfortably, with no sign of what she'd gone through except for her rather tattered uniform. She stared for a while until Yori handed her a cup. Startled, she looked at it, then took it from the smiling young woman. "It can be a bit of a shock. For some reason, healing impresses people in a way that nothing else does." Sipping the steaming liquid, which turned out to be some sort of tea, Deveraux nodded slowly.

"That's got to be the most amazing thing I've ever seen. And you worked out how to do that yourself?" The girl nodded, looking slightly annoyed about something.

"I kind of had to. A very long story, one I don't like to think about. Anyway, between us Chou and I improved the technique, we're pretty good at it now. Unfortunately like a lot of our more unusual abilities teaching it to others seems very difficult, we do things in a very weird way according to other magic workers. It's a pity, I'd really like to see that method in wide use. We simply can't use it as much as we'd like. At least we can help the people who are most likely to require it."

"So, you're the medical go-to squad as well?" Harrison smiled at the girl, who raised an eyebrow then grinned back.

"Pretty much. Some of the magical girl teams have healing powers at least as good, although I don't think many if any of them have much real medical knowledge. But most don't. We made it clear to even the ones we have... issues... with, that if they had a medical emergency they should contact us. Many of them have at one point or another. As have a number of the local police, a few others we know well, and a fair number of our special visitors." She laughed. "We've even been for what I suppose you'd call a couple of house calls for some of those visitors." Harrison looked at her oddly but shrugged after a moment, sipping his own tea.

Fumiko made a mumbling noise and put her hand to her head, wincing. Everyone looked at her, Misaki rapidly moving to sit beside her, holding her other hand. The girl on the bed opened her eyes and muttered something in Japanese, making her sister smile. After a moment her eyes focussed and she looked around, staring briefly at the two people she didn't recognise with a furrowed brow, before looking at her sister. The two began talking quietly. Chou motioned them all to the other side of the room, where they sat.

"Let them have some time alone. Sisters need to talk after something like that." She looked momentarily sad, then smiled. "So, Lieutenant, Inspector, what did you think of your first run in with a demon?" Harrison stared at her.

"I _think_ I'd like it to be my _last_ run in with a demon, to be honest." Aiko and Yori burst out laughing while Tamiko giggled. Chou nodded understandingly.

"Yes, I can see why you'd think that."

"Thank you for helping, Lieutenant," Aiko said, grinning at him. "You too, Inspector. That was a brave thing to do under the circumstances. I wouldn't recommend shooting something like that normally, as you saw all it mostly does is make them really angry, but this time it was just what was called for." She laughed. "If you do want to shoot a demon you're going to need a _much_ bigger gun. And, ideally, be a very long way away."

"Something like a six inch naval gun would probably be about right," Harrison said with considerable vigour. Yori produced an amused expression.

"For a little one like that, yes." Harrison stared at her, unsure whether she was joking. She was smiling but there was something in her eyes which made him shiver. Glancing at Deveraux he saw she was also worried. The martial artist turned to the leader of the other team. "Three of them? That's unusual, you normally only see one at a time of that lot. I wonder why three?" Aiko shrugged.

"No idea. It wasn't very communicative. I did ask, but you know that bunch, they tend to lie at the best of times." Everyone other than the two police officers nodded thoughtfully. "Then it tried to rip our heads off. We didn't spend much time chatting after that."

"Fair enough." Yori turned as Fumiko and Misaki stopped talking, the former slowly sitting up, then standing. "How do you feel?" she called across the room, still speaking English.

"Like I got thrown through a brick wall," Fumiko said, grimacing. Misaki looked darkly amused, while Tamiko snickered.

"You didn't go _all_ the way through." Fumiko grunted.

"That fucking thing can't have been trying very hard then. Last time, I did."

"It _was_ a very thick wall, to be fair," Aiko said with a smile. Fumiko shrugged, then winced, touching her collarbone gently.

"If I'd had time to get my shield up this wouldn't hurt so much." She seemed irritated, more with herself than anyone else. Yori smirked a little.

"I keep telling you guys you need more combat practice." Tamiko shot her a glance.

"Yes, and then you beat the crap out of us worse than that thing did. You've broken my arm three times this year so far." The black haired girl leaned back comfortably in her chair.

"Ah, I love my work, sometimes." She grinned. Chou sighed gently, casting a fond yet mildly disapproving glance at her partner.

Harrison and Deveraux listened to the banter with a weird feeling. There was an underlying seriousness to it which belied the levity of the words. Everyone was clearly aware that it could have been much worse. It reminded them both very strongly of the sort of gallows humour that law enforcement officers the world over tended to, making them realise that these young women were very like them in many ways. If nothing else they could respect some fellow professionals, even if the profession was one they still had difficulty believing existed.

Deveraux was looking at the four girls, then away, frowning slightly to herself. Yori noticed, smiling slightly. "It's a protection spell," she said. The woman looked at her.

"Pardon?"

"You just noticed that when you aren't looking at them you can't remember details of what they look like, right?" Harrison raised his eyebrows as Deveraux nodded with an odd expression.

"Yes. It's very strange. I can remember their names, but draw a complete blank on their faces and general appearance. But when I look back at them everything comes back." Aiko looked amused, as did the other three.

"Like I said, it's a spell, for identity protection. It makes it basically impossible to identify them when they're in, well, street clothes. Not these," she gestured at the skimpy uniforms the girls were wearing, "pervert's dream clothes." Tamiko looked down at herself, then grinned. The other three looked somewhat embarrassed. Deveraux and Harrison looked at each other, eyebrows up. "That's pretty impressive. How on earth does something like that work?" Harrison started experimenting, not having noticed up until now. Yori sighed a little.

"It's kind of complicated to explain, even if you had a background in magic. I've heard it called a perceptual filter which is a reasonable description even if a bit simplistic. But that glosses over a very complex spell." Deveraux nodded.

"OK. I guess it's not something I'd understand anyway." She thought for a moment, then mused, "I wonder why I didn't notice until now?"

"It breaks down a little during very intense emotions. Still works, just slows down the forgetting bit by a few seconds," Aiko explained. "So, since you kept looking back at us, essentially it was being reset before it fully worked. Now that everyone is safe it's working to design. I don't know whether that part of it is deliberate or not."

"Magic is very strange," Harrison commented. Everyone else nodded.

"You're not the first one to have noticed that." Chou smiled at him warmly.

Yori looked around at them. "I guess we'd better get these two back to their hotel. Fumiko, you feel OK to go home, or do you want to come back with us?" The tall girl poked her collarbone again.

"I'm fine. Thanks, guys."

Aiko glanced at the two police officers. "I told Yori what happened with your firearms. She'll explain it to the captain. If needed, I'll come and give her a report as well. There shouldn't be any trouble." She smiled at them. "You did help in a genuine and nasty demon attack, after all." Harrison looked grateful, while Deveraux smiled back.

"Thank you."

"No problem. I'll go back and pick up all your brass as well, in case you need it for your report. The captain will almost certainly want this in writing. If there are any bullets in the walls I'll get them as well, but I think you hit with nearly every shot. Good work, by the way."

"Can you drop them off at the hotel, Aiko?" Yori asked. The short brunette nodded.

"Sure. Can you spare a bit of power, I'm getting a bit low after teleporting so many people." Yori grinned at her.

"Again? I'm just a battery to you, aren't I?" Aiko laughed and held out an odd looking necklace, the other woman touching it with glowing fingers for a few seconds. "There you go, that should be full."

"Thanks, Yori. See you in a moment." She turned to the two visitors who had watched this with interest. "Right. Stand over here, and I'll jump you right to the front door." Once more the world twitched and Deveraux staggered a little. It was nothing like as disorientating this time, she found, just a quick burst of dizziness that left almost instantly. She looked up to see their hotel lobby door mere metres away.

"Thank you, Aiko." The girl grinned.

"You're welcome. See you around, I expect, if you're here for a while. Take care, and try to stay away from the demons. Oh, when I teleport out it produces a very bright flash, so don't look right at me unless you want to be blinded for a while, OK?" Both officers exchanged a glance, then turned around. Behind them they heard Aiko giggle, then the street was briefly lit as if an enormous flashbulb had gone off. When they looked back the girl was gone.

"Well. That was... interesting." Harrison looked at his colleague with his eyebrows raised.

"That's one way of putting it. Frankly, terrifying would be a better description as far as I'm concerned." Both of them laughed a little, entering their hotel.

* * *

When they entered the police station the next day, Sergeant Harada was sitting at his desk, looking at a sealed transparent plastic bag. Glancing up as they approached he showed it to them. "This was dropped off last night for me with a note to give it to you. Something you'd like to tell me?" Deveraux and Harrison looked at each other, then back at the bag, which contained nearly two dozen expended 9mm casings and three rather squashed bullets.

"Um, we had an interesting time on the way back from a bar last night?" Harrison tried, looking guilty. Harada gazed evenly at him.

"I just bet you did." He suddenly grinned. "OK, tell me. The captain would like to see you, but I want to hear this first." They looked at each other again, then Deveraux shrugged a little, motioning to Harrison. Sitting down he explained the events of the previous night, which felt slightly unreal in the cold light of day. When he finished Harada stared at him for a while. "Hmm. You _did_ have an interesting time. You seem to have been dropped into the deep end with magical girls, that's for sure." He shook his head in wonder. "I don't know anyone who's shot at a demon of that type and got away with it. Normally the best response is to run like a bastard."

"I can see why," Harrison said, thinking about the thing they'd seen. "About sixteen rounds in it, two in the head, and it just got angrier. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it." Deveraux laughed slightly.

"Hey, do you believe in magic _now?_" she asked.

"Oh, yes. I do indeed believe in magic now. After what I saw..." Harada grinned at him.

"It's a pretty effective way to find out the truth, but it is a little harsh. OK, let's go and see the captain. I don't think there will be too much trouble, but she may shout at you for a while. Let her get it out of her system, it's the best thing in the long run." Swallowing slightly, they both got up and went with him to their doom.

The captain did indeed shout. Quite a lot. In the end, though, she calmed down and listened carefully as they went over the story once more. At the end she sighed. "All right, I accept you didn't have any real choice once you got involved. I'm slightly sorry you _did_ get involved in the first place, but from the way you described it that may have been for the best. I'd like a written report of this from both of you, please, by the end of the day. Sergeant, can you ask Yori to submit one as well, and Aiko if you can get hold of her?" He nodded. "Thank you. Put the casings and the bullets with the report, please. It's unlikely to go any higher, but if it does I want everything in order." She looked at the two foreign police officers. "If at all possible please try not to get involved in anything like that again."

Both nodded fervently. "I certainly have no intention of deliberately going up against a demon, Ma'am," Harrison said. She smiled very slightly.

"That's good." Turning to the sergeant she thought for a moment. "Issue them replacement ammunition and log that in the report as well."

"Yes, Captain," he replied, turning and waving his colleagues out of the office. When they were safe out of earshot, he smiled. "I think she must like you guys. That was pretty easy." Harrison stared at him.

"Easy? She made me feel like a rookie again." Harada snickered.

"She has a way with words. Believe me, if she was really angry you'd be on a plane home by now, probably in handcuffs. No, the captain was in quite a good mood all things considered. If it hadn't been Yori and Aiko's team matters might have been different, but she has a lot of respect for those girls." He showed them to a couple of computers. "Let me set these up for English and you can get your reports typed up. Best to get them out of the way sooner than later." Retrieving a pair of US keyboards from a cupboard he replaced the Japanese ones with them, then fiddled with both machines for a moment. "There we go. It should be reasonably recognisable. Let me know if you have any problems, I'll be at my desk." Both foreigners sat and began typing, a very common exercise with very uncommon contents.

A couple of hours later they had just about finished when a pair of familiar figures sat down next to them. "Hi, guys. How's it going?" Yori asked, looking curiously at the screen of Harrison's computer. He sighed slightly, leaning back in his chair.

"About as well as you could expect. I never thought I'd be writing a report to a Japanese police captain about how I and a Canadian colleague got involved in a firefight with a demon and some magical girls." She snickered.

"It could have been worse." He stared at her.

"_How?_"

"There was only one demon..." Harrison put his head in his hands.

"Oh, god. This is insane." Patting him comfortingly on the shoulder, she grinned.

"You'll get used to it."

"That's what everyone keeps telling me. When will this happy state start? Because, I can tell you now, I'm nowhere _near_ used to it yet." Both she and Chou laughed, even Deveraux snickering a little.

Sergeant Harada came over, greeting the two girls with a smile. "Hello, Yori, Chou. The captain asked if you'd mind having a word with her when you have a moment." They glanced at each other then nodded.

"Yes, no problem, Sergeant. If I can use one of your computers I can write up a report of last night first, though." He waved her over to his desk. Sitting at it she altered a couple of settings on the machine, then started typing at an absolutely insane speed. The continuous buzzing noise of the keyboard made everyone in the open-plan office stare until they saw who it was. Deveraux and Harrison gaped. Chou grinned at them.

"We have extremely fast reactions," she said, "the biggest problem is having to go slowly enough to allow the computer to keep up, keyboards aren't meant to work that fast." In under five minutes Yori had typed some twelve pages of text, formatted it neatly, and sent it to the printer. Pushing her chair back she got up, retrieved the papers and stapled them together. Quickly shooting the two officers a smile she and Chou headed for the captain's office.

Deveraux shook her head in wonder. "Every time I think they can't possibly surprise me again, something like _that_ happens."

"They are something special, that's for sure." Harrison turned back to his work, finishing it a few minutes later and printing it. "Done." Deveraux printed her report shortly afterwards. "Here you go, Sergeant." Harada took both reports, looked them over, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Thank you. I'll get these to the captain." He walked off, returning a few minutes later with the magical girls, all three of them laughing about something. "The captain sends her thanks. Here, this should be enough for you." He handed Harrison a box of 9mm cartridges. Both officers took out their weapons and began reloading them. Harada also produced a cleaning kit, which Deveraux accepted with thanks. Dismantling her weapon she carefully cleaned it, then lubricated and reassembled it, handing the swabs and fluid to Harrison who did the same. Yori and Chou watched with interest.

"You obviously know your way around a handgun," Yori observed. Harrison nodded, intent on his task.

"It's drilled into you in training. On more than one occasion this thing has saved my life, LA is a bit gun-happy even by US standards." Chou sighed a little.

"I've heard a lot about the US and your love affair with firearms. To us it seems, well, rather irresponsible, to let practically anyone have lethal weaponry." She paused for a moment. "I've heard all the arguments on both sides of it, and I do understand it's not the weapon itself that's dangerous but the person holding it, but even so, it seems to me that less guns inevitably leads to less people being shot with them. The number of simple accidents involving firearms in the US is remarkable, never mind the number of deliberate actions." He nodded thoughtfully, reassembling his weapon carefully.

"I know what you mean. Even though I come from that culture, one in which firearms are deeply embedded, in my line of work I see a lot of the downsides of it. I'm no gun nut, I carry one but I'm not entirely in favour of random citizens walking around armed to the hilt, if only because it makes my own job much more dangerous. But it's a part of the culture, much like you and your friends are here." She indicated understanding. He shrugged, sliding the magazine back into the weapon and making sure the safety was engaged before putting it away. "Nothing I can do about it one way or the other, I just have to work with what we have." Handing the depleted box of ammunition back to Harada, who locked it away in his desk, he looked around at the various people.

"So, what next? Have you heard anything yet?" Yori nodded.

"We've been contacted by about half the people we got in touch with. So far, pretty much everything came back negative. We did get one report about a mage that apparently wanted some slightly unusual information a few months back, which _might_ be something connected to this case. I've asked for more details, which will take a few hours. No one seems to have heard anything specific, though. That said, the information I gave out has several people rather worried. We'll certainly hear back if these people are found, I have no doubt about that."

A few minutes later, while they were discussing life in the US, which neither of the martial artists had been to, a faint buzzing sounded. Yori looked at Chou, who produced a cell-phone from somewhere and glanced at it. Her eyebrows went up. "It's Uthryyl." Yori also looked slightly surprised. Chou answered the phone, in a language that wasn't either Japanese or English. After a brief conversation she handed the phone to Yori, who spoke at length in the same language. Eventually she hung up, handing it back to Chou with a nod of thanks. Harrison and Deveraux were looking at both girls oddly. The language they had used was very strange sounding. She noticed the look and correctly determined the reason.

"It's a common trade language used through a number of demon worlds. We both learned it over the last few years, it's useful when you visit them. Uthryyl speaks Japanese very well, but we tend to use the other one when we talk, mainly to keep in practice." Deveraux nodded while Harrison listened, fascinated. "Right. What that was all about is a pretty solid lead." They all sat up, listening intently. "Uthryyl made some enquiries of his own, he went back to his home, then to a couple of trade worlds. It seems that there is a mage from this general area who has been buying up a lot of materials recently, ones that are used in the creation of a specific type of portal. Normal portals are produced through one or other spell, they're very complicated and difficult to do. Quite a lot of power is needed and often more than one mage to keep them stable. They're essentially impossible to automate, they need one or more actual mages. That's a normal, two way, stable portal." She stopped, trying to think of the best way to continue.

After a moment, she went on, "It's possible to make a much simpler one, which has some severe limitations. It only goes one way, it can't be kept open for more than a few seconds, perhaps half a minute, and it eats power like you wouldn't believe, they're horribly inefficient. _But_ they can be automated. By that, I mean the spell can be prepared and applied to something a little like the storage sphere I showed you yesterday. In fact it uses one of them to hold the power to run it. The spell can be triggered by anyone who knows the process, it runs entirely on the stored power, and this sort of thing is often carried as an emergency escape method by interworld travellers who think ahead. You can keep it in your pocket or whatever, and if you really get stuck, activate it and jump through, you understand?" The three officers nodded.

"OK, good. Now, the thing about this is that the mage involved isn't someone anyone has ever heard of being involved in making these things, which is something of a specialist art. And he's been acquiring enough materials to make hundreds of them, which is very strange. It's an expensive process, normally even a specialist might only get ten or twenty orders a year. Hundreds?" She shook her head. "No, there's something funny going on there." Stopping as a thought struck her, she suddenly looked appalled. "Oh, crap." Swearing softly in Japanese in a way that made Harada both amused and impressed at the same time, she produced another phone and dialled a number. Impatiently tapping the fingers of her free hand on the desk, she immediately began talking very fast when it was answered. The response she got didn't make her look any happier. Hanging up she thought for a moment, then dialled another number. This one took longer to be answered, but the conversation was shorter. Again, she looked annoyed, and a little worried. "Damn it." she muttered in English.

"Do you have that blue haired girl's number, what's her name, Ami?" she asked Chou. The blonde thought for a moment, then nodded.

"I think so. Hang on." Pulling out her phone again she looked through the contact list, before showing it to Yori. The black haired girl dialled the number and waited. Again there was a conversation, which went on for some time. In the end she went quiet for a moment, then apparently thanked whoever was on the other end and hung up.

"This isn't good," she said after a few seconds, looking up at the others. "I thought there was something weird about the portal that last demon came through," she said to Chou, who nodded slowly.

"It did feel a bit strange, I remember you said the same at the time, but we were rather busy after that." Yori scowled.

"I should have followed up on it. Stupid. I called a few other groups who have dealt with particularly nasty demons recently, and they all said the same thing. When they were close enough to get a good reading on the portal the things came through, it was a weird one that came and went much faster than normal. Aiko told me the same was true about the three that came through last night." The young woman stared at the floor in anger for a moment. "It _is_ an attack, damn it. I couldn't figure out what the point was, but that _is_ the point. There _isn't_ one. It's just random destruction." Looking up at the officers who were listening and wondering where she was going with this, she sighed.

"The demons we've had to deal with recently, like the one that led to the new duck pond, are different. Most visitors from other worlds are either basically peaceful, or even if not have a very specific goal. These things are simply destructive, they seem to exist only to kill anything that moves. They're damn difficult to kill unless you both know the trick and have special abilities. We did find out which world they're coming from a couple of weeks ago, which is a horrible one no one with a brain goes anywhere near, but no one could figure out how they were getting here or why." She indicated Chou with her thumb. "Her sister actually asked me nearly a month ago whether I thought they could be the result of a deliberate attack, and I said I couldn't see any reason for it, not using those things. But I missed something. What if the entire point isn't a specific goal, just general death and destruction? Chaos, in a word."

Harada looked worried, asking, "But who, and more to the point, why?" She sighed again.

"Normal terrorists, even the more extreme ones, usually have a goal in mind. Political, religious, whatever, at least by their own standards there's some sort of sense to it and something at the end of it. Not usually something that a sane person would come up with, but it's internally self-consistent. Now, these guys you're tracking are some sort of offshoot of Aum Shinriko, who were nuts even by the standards of loopy cults. And these idiots are crazy enough that they were kicked out of a group like that? One that would try random nerve gas attacks on a major city basically just to see what happened?" Harrison, Harada, and Deveraux exchanged worried looks. The concept wasn't comfortable.

"I have a horrible feeling that your case and the problems we've been dealing with recently are connected, and that the end game isn't anything other than mass destruction simply for it's own sake. Proper end of the world stuff. The original group, from what I can remember about it, were trying to bring about an Armageddon, so they could rule what was left, or something along those lines. What worries me is that these lunatics may be trying the same thing but with considerably more lethal methods. If even one of the demons we've dealt with appeared in, for example, the middle of a crowded mall, it would be a bloodbath. The fucking things have already killed nearly a dozen people in Minato, even though they get jumped and vaporised within minutes around here. If it happened in LA? Or Toronto? Or London? What would, or even could, the local authorities do then?"

"Oh, fuck." Deveraux looked sick. Yori nodded while Chou put her hand on her partners arm.

"You see what I mean. Trust me, the thing you helped Aiko and her team take down last night is nothing compared to what these other ones are like. You could shoot one of those point-blank with an anti-tank gun and it would be back together and pulling your head off in seconds. Oh, sure, your military could deal with it in the end, but the damage would be horrific. And if there were dozens of them all over a large city..." Harrison had gone white, while Harada was calling Agent Naito.

"Are you sure?" Deveraux asked the girl in a low voice. She shook her head.

"Completely sure, no. But it fits, much better than I like. These local ones may have been a test run. You never did find out quite how the fatalities in your original cases happened, but I'm willing to bet that they were an early test of some sort of lethal magic. It may be that they settled on bringing in demons as a simpler method, death magic is difficult and touchy, while portals are pretty predictable. Minato is the global hotspot of portal and demon activity so perhaps they came here for information." She shrugged a little. "I don't know, this is at least half guesswork, but it kind of hangs together. I wish to hell it didn't."

"Agent Naito will be here in twenty minutes." Sergeant Harada hung up and turned back to them. "He didn't sound happy with your theory, mainly because I think he believes it." Yori nodded glumly.

"I wish I didn't." Pulling out her phone she dialled a number and began speaking the trade language to whoever was on the other end. After a moment she nodded, then spoke briefly to Chou, who pulled out her own phone and called someone else. By the time Naito turned up they had had a dozen conversations in both Japanese and the trade language, and one in English. Chou was still on the phone when Naito walked in, looking around then heading for them.

"OK, tell me in detail what you've found, please," he said, pulling a chair over and turning on a small camcorder, placing it on the desk facing them. Yori went back over everything while Chou murmured on the phone in the background. A few minutes in she tapped on Yori's shoulder and motioned for her phone, dialling another number on it and having two conversations at once. As Yori finished her explanation for the second time, Agent Naito looked as sick as Deveraux had done the first time around. "Oh, god damn it. That's far too plausible to be anything other than correct. What the hell are we going to do? How do we stop them, we don't even know where they are." Chou hung up both phones and handed Yori's back, putting her own away.

"Yes, we do. I think," she said quietly. Everyone looked at her. "With the information from Uthryyl I was able to find someone who had recently dealt with this mystery mage and some associates of his. The trader got curious about the man, he said there was just something that made his feathers itch." Most of those present looked at her with weird expressions and she shrugged, "That's what he said, yes, he does have feathers, anyway, he thought there was something weird going on so he arranged to have the mage followed. To cut a long story short, through a chain of people the mage was traced to an address in the middle of the area your men are watching, Agent Naito. Apparently it's a second-level basement in an industrial building, which has, and I quote, "The strongest wards I've ever seen anywhere except for that building next to the university, which is simply insane.'" She looked slightly embarrassed. "We know about the building, it's not involved. Just some very private and extremely strong magic users."

Agent Naito nodded thoughtfully. "So, we have a possible location. What can we do about it?" Yori glanced at Chou, who looked back with a small shrug.

"Well, there's always the duck pond option." Naito winced.

"Um, let's leave that as a last resort, OK?" She looked slightly amused.

"I'd think the first thing we need to do is find out whether they're actually there in the first place. That's where they _were_, but we don't know if it's where they _are_. We need to get all of them at once, if one gets away they could start all over again and we might not know until it's too late." The PSIA agent seemed to agree.

"Fine. How do we do that? If they have magic on their side I don't think my men can sneak up on them." The two magical girls exchanged glances.

"That's what we're here for." Chou smiled at him. "We'll go and check the building out. Once we're sure they're in there, we'll let you know."

Harrison looked worried. "But then what? What if they teleport away like they did last time?"

"If the building is warded like that they won't be able to without lowering the wards at least a little, which will give us some warning. In fact..." Yori suddenly looked thoughtful, then maliciously amused. "I wonder... if their mage isn't a portal expert, perhaps he isn't a ward expert either." Harada looked puzzled.

"Even if that's the case, what does that mean?" She grinned.

"Well, Chou and I _are_ experts on wards, as it happens. We've had a _lot_ of practice. We were taught by the best. And I just got an interesting idea. If he isn't an expert, if he bought in the spell for the wards, there's a possibility that we can turn that around on him." They looked puzzled. "It's _just_ possible, if you know what you're doing and have enough power, to flip a ward. Turn the direction of shielding around. It takes a hell of a lot of energy, but it can be done. So, if his wards aren't quite done right..."

Naito suddenly got the idea.

"You could take them over and turn them around? Trapping them inside, rather than trapping everyone else outside?" She nodded with a grin.

"Basically. I'm not guaranteeing anything, I need to have a close up look at them, but if we can do that, they're sitting ducks. They can't get out, at least via magical methods, and we _can_ get in. The only downside is that someone could then open an inbound portal and bring in reinforcements, which otherwise they couldn't do. Hopefully we can shut them down before they can call out, assuming there is anyone on the outside anyway."

"I can get all the phone service, including cell coverage, shut down for the entire area. We can also jam other radio communications." Naito made some notes. Yori looked pleased.

"Great. OK, I think we may have a basic plan then. Chou and I will go and check the building out and see if we can determine how many people are inside. You set up whatever it is that you need to arrange. We need to hurry, no telling how soon this could happen, it might be months away or any minute now." Both martial artists stood and ran out of the room.

Deveraux and Harrison looked at each other, then simultaneously checked their side-arms. Harada did the same. Naito watched them, picked up the phone, and began making calls.

It was nearly two hours later when the two young woman reappeared. Yori slumped down, looking slightly tired for the first time that Deveraux could recall. Chou sat beside her, pulling a bottle of water from thin air and draining it. "Well, their wards are pretty strong, that much is true. Luckily, I was right. It's a preset spell, or rather half a dozen of them, with a lot of power behind it and not much experience. We can flip it. I've already taken over the control function and locked it so they can't change it, hopefully they won't notice until it's too late." Agent Naito looked pleased.

"Well, that's one good thing. Are they in there, though?" She nodded.

"Yes. The mage is, definitely, and there are six other people. Five of them are the ones you and the Inspector have been looking for, Lieutenant," she said, looking at Harrison. "The sixth one isn't on your list, but I know him, or at least know about him. He's Yakuza, or was. Not a pleasant person at all. He disappeared a while ago, just before Chou was going to have some serious words with him about the way he was behaving to certain women in the district. The Oyabun has had a large price on his head for over a year. I thought he'd left the country, to be honest." Chou looked quite annoyed, which Harrison thought wasn't an expression that she normally wore, the woman seemed very even-tempered, almost serene, most of the time, but now she looked genuinely dangerous.

"I would very much like to talk to him," she said in a quiet voice that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "A couple of people I know quite well were not treated properly by him." Yori smirked a little.

"With a little luck you may yet have that talk." Chou smiled in a way that made it look like she was thinking about going for someone's throat. Everyone else but Yori eased slightly away from her.

"Ah, right. Good. So they're in there." Agent Naito looked warily at the blonde woman, who smiled back, looking quite safe once more. "So what next? This is more in your field of expertise than mine at the moment."

"We need to wait, I think. The building above it is a light industrial one with several businesses in it. If we evacuate them it might tip these people off, so it's probably best to wait for them to close up and go home normally. You should arrange to have all the other buildings surrounding them to be evacuated, though, if that can be done discreetly." He nodded, picking up the phone. Issuing a few commands, he put it down again.

"In progress. They should all be out within an hour." Yori checked the clock on the wall.

"Good. The businesses involved should all close up in about an hour and a half. We can make a sweep through and make sure everyone is out. As soon as we're sure, you cut all the communications and we'll flip the wards. Get your men to cover all the exits in case they make a run for it the normal way, while we go in and deal with them." Naito looked at Harada, then back to Yori.

"Deal with them how?" he asked slowly. She looked evenly at him.

"Appropriately." He was the first to look away.

"All right. As I said, this is more your field of expertise." She nodded, pulling out her phone.

"I'm going to ask Aiko and her team to come and help, from the outside, just in case some magical threat turns up. They're the only ones I can get on short notice I trust to do it right."

"Fine." Naito was still watching her with a mildly upset expression. She grinned suddenly.

"Don't look so worried, Agent. I promise we won't simply slaughter them, we'll give them every chance to surrender. We're not murderers. But we can't let them get away, thousands of lives could be at risk." He didn't look completely happy.

"And the duck pond option?" She shrugged.

"Is still an option. So keep your distance."

"Oh, fuck it all, this is going to be bad, I can just feel it," he moaned. She patted him on the knee.

"Don't be like that. Think happy thoughts." Dialling, she spoke for a while, before hanging up. "Aiko and crew will be here very soon." There was a flash outside the building, visible through the windows. "About now, in fact."

The other magical girls soon entered the police station, greeting various other officers on the way. No one seemed overly surprised to see them, although there were a number of discreet appreciative glances sent their way. Harrison was struck by the thought that at home it was very unlikely that large quantities of young women with little on would be able to casually wander in and out of a police station like that. He grinned slightly. Aiko spotted him and waved. "Hello, Lieutenant, Inspector. Feeling less confused after last night?" She smiled.

"Well, we're OK with that part now," Deveraux said, "but recent developments seem to be going quite fast." Aiko and the others sat or leaned on desks while Yori and Chou explained for the third time, adding some background to the case. They looked suitably appalled and very angry. Fumiko swore viciously.

"Those fuckers. So that's why I nearly got killed last night?" Yori nodded.

"And Tamiko when that first one showed up months ago." Both girls scowled.

"What do you need us to do?" Aiko asked, looking at her team-mates for a moment. They all seemed eager to help.

"Mainly provide backup and magical security for the police and PSAI teams outside. We'll go in after these guys, but if anyone or anything either gets past us or comes in from outside, we might need some help."

"OK. When are we going?" Yori checked the clock again.

"I'd think a bit over an hour. Does that fit with you, Agent?" Naito also looked at the clock then nodded.

"Yes. My men are almost in position, everything will be set up by then." He glanced at Harada. "I'd better go and tell Captain Uehara what's going on. She'll pop a gasket if this goes off without her knowledge." Harada grinned.

"That she would." The agent left, the remaining people sitting quietly for a moment busy with their own thoughts. Deveraux looked over at Harrison, watching him think. He was rolling a pen between his fingers, staring at the clock. Feeling her eyes on him he turned his head towards her.

"What?" he asked curiously after a moment. She shrugged a little.

"Not sure. What do you think about this?"

"It's kind of sudden," he admitted, frowning slightly. "I'm used to operations like this being planned for weeks in advance." Yori snorted, making them both look at her.

"And how often does everything go exactly to plan?" she asked.

With a smile he admitted, "Not all that often." The girl nodded.

"'_No plan survives contact with the enemy_'" she quoted. "That's as true now as it was when Field Marshal Von Moltke said it nearly a hundred years ago, and for the thousands of years before that when it was known by every person who ever went into battle. The more detailed your plans, the more likely something is to go wrong. I've always felt you need a decent set of guidelines, an objective, then enough flexibility to change things on the fly." She shrugged. "It's worked so far." Everyone was looking at her with varying expressions. "Hey, I took history in school. I learned things." Aiko grinned.

"You come out with the weirdest things sometimes, Yori." The black haired young woman looked amused.

"I do my best." Glancing at the two overseas visitors, she added, "You guys should stay back with Naito and his men." Harrison sighed slightly.

"I know. We will, but it feels wrong, somehow, letting a bunch of teenaged girls go in where a SWAT team wouldn't. No offence." She laughed delightedly.

"None taken, at all. Thank you for thinking of our safety. Don't worry, we'll be fine. If we run into something we can't handle, well, there's nothing you and the entire Tokyo police force could have done anyway." He groaned as Deveraux smiled and most of the magical girls nodded knowingly.

"Oh, that makes me feel _much_ better, thanks."

Naito came back with Captain Uehara, who looked at the six magical girls with some irritation. "This is supposed to be a police station not a clubhouse for teenagers with too little on." She inspected Aiko, who smiled at her with glee. With a sigh, she shook her head then turned to her sergeant. "Agent Naito has filled me in on this. I'd like you to go along to make sure this madhouse doesn't wreck the district, please." He nodded. "I'd send more officers with you, but from what I hear it probably wouldn't help anyway, and it's not like we're a huge station here. This is only a district station." She shook her head again. "God, magic is a pain sometimes. Magical terrorists are even worse." Glancing around at them all, she sighed once more. "Try not to get killed, or blow up the entire town. Please? For me?" Yori grinned. Chou looked confident and relaxed, while Aiko and her girls seemed ready for anything. Shaking her head the captain wandered off muttering to herself.

"She seems perturbed," Chou said with a small smile. Naito looked at her, then grinned.

"She's having a little trouble with the entire day, I think." Glancing at the clock he looked back at Yori, who nodded.

"I think it's time. Are your people ready?"

"Yes. Everyone is in place at a safe distance, the entire area has been cordoned off out of sight of the building. There's no one we know of within three hundred metres." Pulling out his phone he issued some quick orders, then hung up again. "Communications are ready to be cut as soon as you give the word."

"Right. Let's get over there. Aiko?" The petite brunette nodded, pulling out her amulet.

"Aim for the north side of Sakura park."

"OK. Everyone stand close." She looked around, then activated the teleport. The officers left in the room swore as they blinked.

"Gah." Agent Naito nearly fell over, only managing to stay upright when a slender but incredibly strong hand held onto his shoulder. "Thank you," he mumbled, his head spinning. In a few seconds he could see clearly enough that he realised that Chou was supporting him.

"Are you all right, Agent?" she asked politely.

"Yes, I think so. That was unexpected." The blonde smiled. "It only hits you like that the first time." She glanced over at Harada who was swaying back and forth with his eyes closed, Tamiko holding onto him. The auburn-haired girl nodded to her. Shortly both men had recovered enough to listen to Yori.

"OK. The building is about two hundred and fifty metres over in that direction. We'll get into position, then signal you. Cut the comms immediately, we'll flip the wards then go in. If anyone other than us comes out before we do, shoot to kill." She looked seriously at Naito. "I mean it. If they get away with any of those one-shot portals it will get extremely nasty." Reluctantly he nodded, pulling out a radio handset and issuing some orders. Looking at it, he handed it to the black haired girl.

"Here. This is about the only communication method that won't get jammed." She accepted it with a nod of thanks.

"Right. You guys make sure these guys don't get jumped from behind. You know what to do." She looked at each of Aiko's team in turn, they all nodded soberly, suddenly completely professional and battle-ready. Harrison was astounded by the abrupt air of no-nonsense imminent danger they were giving off. He found it difficult to believe that these were a lot of young women in their late teens, they suddenly seemed more dangerous that a squad of experienced soldiers. Glancing at Deveraux he saw she had noticed the change as well. She looked back at him seriously, pulling out her weapon and flicking off the safety. He did the same and saw that Harada and Naito had done likewise.

The four girls produced their own weapons from wherever they kept them, something Harrison still hadn't worked out, Yori and Chou touching each one in turn with glowing hands, pumping them full of whatever energy they had so much of. Yori did the recharging trick with Aiko's amulet again, and also a number of smaller artefacts the girls produced from about their persons. With one final check, the pair of them smiled at their friends then faded from view. "Let's get over to the command post," Naito said after a moment's silence. Everyone followed him. As soon as he got to the group of heavily armed and armoured men in the van parked up a side street out of view of the target building he plucked a radio from the hand of another agent, waving the man's protestations away peevishly. "We're in place, Yori," he said into it. A few seconds later the response came back.

"So are we. Cut the communications." He waved to a man in the open back of the van, who nodded then typed on a keyboard. Seconds later he gave a thumbs up.

"Comms down."

"Wards inverted. We're going in." The voice came from the handset he was holding and he sighed.

"Be careful," he said quietly, but didn't key up the transmitter. Aiko stepped up beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"They know what they're doing. Yori better than anyone, I think." Looking down at the short girl he smiled slightly.

"I know. I've read her file." His smile widened a little. "And yours. I couldn't ask for better help." She looked pleased.

After the first ten minutes had passed with nothing but silence, everyone settled in for the long haul. Another twenty minutes crept past. Abruptly, Harada looked up, as did Tamiko and Misaki. "What was that?" A faint vibration came and went, followed a few seconds later by a slightly more intense one. There was a distant rumble. Everyone froze, then looked around the corner at the building two hundred metres away. Nothing seemed different.

"We ran into some resistance," Yori's voice crackled from the radio, interference making it difficult to understand. "It's not resisting any more." Aiko snickered.

"I'll bet it isn't. Whatever it was is probably a glowing glass hole in the ground now." Harrison looked at Naito who was looking worried.

"_Please_ don't make another duck pond," he muttered in Japanese, Tamiko helpfully translating for the benefit of the visitors. Naito glared at her, while she shrugged with a smile. "Thank you," he grated.

"You're welcome," she chirped brightly. He sighed and leaned against the wall.

"Bloody magical girls." She giggled at his mumbling, while Harada grinned behind him. Several of his men chuckled until he turned his glare on them, at which point they became very interested in the details of their armour. "Any signs of movement?" he called to one of his agents, who talked quietly into a headset before shaking his head.

"No, the observers on the roof haven't seen anything." Naito sighed.

"I hate waiting like this."

Another ten minutes or so slowly passed. The radio finally came to life again. "We've got them," Chou's voice came. In the background there was the sound of a small explosion. "Oops. We had them." There was a larger explosion, which they felt through the ground, making Naito wince again. "Got them again. Most of them anyway. The mage isn't an issue any longer." Harada snickered while Aiko and her team laughed. Harrison looked at Deveraux, understanding the likely meaning of that. "You can bring your men in, Agent. Bring Aiko and the girls as well, we still have a problem we need their help for." The radio went silent again. Everyone looked speculatively at each other. Raising the radio to his mouth, Naito keyed it up and answered, then waved to his men. Eight of the armoured agents jogged past heading for the building, the others following behind.

Harrison, Deveraux, and Harada tagged along, Naito glancing at them but saying nothing. As they approached the building Chou came out with six men in front of her, holding both her energy swords ready. None of the men looked like they were likely to try anything, they had a number of wounds and one or two of them were being supported by their comrades. At least one had a very obviously broken leg. "Here you go, Agent. Be careful, they're a sneaky bunch." She glared at the one with the broken leg. "Try that again and I'll break the other one. Or just cut it off." She made a suggestive gesture with one energy blade. He shied away from her, trying to put one of the other men between them, unsuccessfully as his colleague was no keener to be near her than he was.

Naito motioned to his men, who quickly and efficiently took charge of the prisoners, stripping them down to their underwear and relieving them of anything that could conceivably be a weapon, before handcuffing them and making them lie face down on the ground. "Misaki, check them for magic, will you, please?" Chou requested. "Yori and I both did, but better to be safe." The tall brunette nodded wordlessly, pulling out a small glowing device and running it over each man in turn. She gave Chou a thumbs up when she was done. "Good."

The blonde relaxed a little, dismissing her energy blades. Naito walked a little closer, he'd been staying well back while she had them out having read about what she could do with them. "Where's Yori?" he asked, looking past her into the doorway of the building behind her.

"That's the problem." She sighed. "They had six of those demons down there, in some sort of stasis spell. The mage released the spell when we got past the last door to delay us. When they realised their teleport spell didn't work they panicked. He nearly tried it anyway, which wouldn't have worked out well, they'd all have died. Luckily for _them_ he changed his mind. Unluckily for _him_, he attempted to blow us up. It didn't work. Yori got annoyed." Harada nodded with a smile.

"That must have been the second explosion." She looked resigned.

"Correct. He wasn't nearly as good as he thought he was. At least it was quick."

"What was the first set of explosions, near the beginning?" Deveraux asked.

"That was one of the demons. We managed to move part of the wards and trap most of them in a couple of rooms in the sub-basement, but one got past before we could block it. It was headed out, so I had to deal with it while Yori was holding the others back. I tried to keep the damage to a minimum but there's quite a large hole down there now." Naito muttered something, making her look at him with a raised eyebrow. He apologised, slightly embarrassed.

'_God, it's like my mother is disappointed in me. How does she __**do**__ that?_' he wondered to himself. Mollified the blonde smiled at him.

"We found quite a lot of paperwork down there, I took everything I could see, as well as some CDROMs and other media." The young woman pulled a large box out of thin air, making most of the people present stare at her. Naito motioned to one of his men when he got over his surprise, who came over and took it from her. "Here you go. This should help your case. I had a very quick look through it and as far as I could see this is probably all of them. We _think_ we've accounted for all the portal devices as well. The plan seems to have been to use them more or less as bombs. Somehow the mage figured out a way to target demons from this end, then open a portal to one when it was moving fast. It would fall right through the open portal, find itself here, and probably in a very bad mood. They were going to scatter the things all over several major cities around the world on timers, then leave. Anything up to a few months later one or more would activate, more or less randomly dropping a demon into a crowd."

Harrison shuddered. "Jesus. That would have been..." He couldn't finish. Chou nodded soberly.

"Not good at all. Anyway, we found about three hundred of them, along with enough materials to make maybe another hundred and fifty. That matches their records. The only problem is that we don't know for a fact how many they made in the initial test batch. We've accounted for six so far, including the one that Aiko's team and our visitors here dealt with the aftermath of, but there could be more. Probably not many, but the only one who could tell us for sure is dead. These men might know, I suppose." She turned to look at the prisoners with interest. They all went white. "I could ask. They'd tell me, I'm sure."

One of the prisoners shouted, "He made a dozen of them." Chou walked slowly towards him, suddenly radiating lethal intent to a degree that made the experienced SWAT team back off nervously.

Squatting down next to the man, she asked politely, "A dozen? Are you _completely_ sure?" He nodded frantically.

"Yes. I'm sure."

"Are they inside? Or did you put them somewhere?" Her voice had dropped a little in pitch and every person listening, with the exception of the other magical girls, felt a shiver go through them. Even Aiko and her team looked slightly worried.

"I don't know! Honest, god help me, I don't know!" The man was lying in a growing puddle. She reached out with a softly glowing hand, placing it lightly on his shoulder.

"You wouldn't lie to me would you?" she asked gently, leaning close so only he could see her face. He whimpered, then screamed in fright.

"No. no, no, no. I'm telling the truth. He took them all, I don't know what he did with them." She looked at him for a few seconds longer, everyone feeling like the afternoon had darkened a little, before suddenly bouncing to her feet.

"Thank you. Your cooperation is much appreciated." Turning she walked back to the others while behind her one of the SWAT team had to sit down. Naito and Harada stared at her in mild horror while Deveraux looked at Harrison, both of them shaking a little. Neither had understood her words, as she'd been speaking Japanese, but her tone carried over the language barrier perfectly.

"Fucking hell," Harrison whispered. Deveraux nodded. Aiko leaned in.

"The thing to get really worried about is that _Yori_ is the scary one." She looked subdued. They stared at her, then each other.

"Fucking hell," Harrison said again, looking at the blonde girl who had a satisfied expression on her face.

"He was telling the truth, I could feel it. He really doesn't know where the other devices are. So best case, we've got them all, worst case, there may be up to half a dozen still out there somewhere. That's not ideal, but it could be a hell of a lot worse. You should probably check where he's been in the last year, we might get some idea of where he might have put them if we can't account for them here. The paperwork has enough information to let you identify him." She looked at Aiko. "Yori is still down there making sure the wards hold. We still have five of those demons to deal with. She thinks the safest way is to force the wards as close as possible then, well, '_duck pond_' them." Agent Naito looked worried.

"Um...," he started. She smiled serenely at him.

"Don't worry, Agent. We can reinforce the wards enough to contain the energy release. It will make a mess of that end of the basement but the damage shouldn't be too extensive. It won't affect the building structurally." He looked dubious. She shrugged. "It's the best way."

"Damn. OK, do what you need to." The blonde smiled at him, then turned to the other magical girl team.

"She wants all of us down there to focus the power and force the wards inwards. We'll feed you the energy, you just have to push it in the right direction. Then we zap them all at once." Aiko glanced at her team, who all nodded.

"OK." All four of them headed for the entrance.

"What about the other portal devices?" Agent Naito asked. She glanced back as she was about to enter the building behind the other girls.

"We'll destroy them. It's the safest thing to do. Most of them have already been targeted and armed, it would be a nightmare if they got out." He looked slightly worried but nodded. "Keep everyone back. You'll know when we're done." Following her friends the blonde disappeared inside the building. Naito slumped slightly as the tension left him.

"God almighty, that woman is terrifying." Harada looked at him and slowly nodded.

"You tend to forget just how dangerous those two are, they're very playful and friendly most of the time. But when they go into full blown combat mode..." He shivered a little. "I don't see that side of them very often, and I'm damn glad about it."

"I was asked to get a sample of that device, the PSIA would like to study it, but I'm not going to argue with _that_."

"I certainly wouldn't. Not about something she knew about and I didn't."

About five minutes later there was what felt like a minor earthquake, accompanied by a sort of mental fizzing effect. Everyone winced, the sensation was very odd although not painful. A rumble came from somewhere underground. All six magical girls emerged shortly afterwards, looking pleased. "Right, that's hopefully the end of _that_," Yori said, walking up to Agent Naito. "All the portal devices are slag, the demons are as well, and the sub-basement is clear. Your men can go in and look for any more evidence you may need. Three rooms are still a little warm and melty, but they'll cool down soon enough. I don't think there was anything particularly useful in them in the first place, they just seemed to be storage areas."

Agent Naito nodded to his men, waving to the building. Four of them entered, while the other four pulled the prisoners to their feet, starting them walking towards the command post. "Thank you, ladies," Naito said, looking around at his unconventional help. They all looked pleased. "You've been a great help once again. We owe you all yet another favour." Yori grinned.

"I'm keeping track." He grinned back.

"I bet you are." Shaking hands, they turned to follow the SWAT team which was fifty or sixty metres away. A sudden shout caught their attention and they all looked ahead to see one of the prisoners struggling with two of the SWAT men. He managed to knee one of them in the crotch, making him stagger slightly, bumping into his colleague, who lost control of the prisoner. Before the others could react he'd somehow managed to wrest control of the first man's pistol from him, jumping to the side and firing three quick shots at the group behind. It all happened so fast that none of the police or PSIA men could react in time.

There was a blur of motion from all the magical girls, which had started the instant the shout came. By the time the third shot rang out, Chou was just slowing from an impossibly fast sprint next to the man, her hand reaching out and tapping him on the head, making him drop like he'd been shot, while her other hand had removed the pistol from his so quickly it had broken three fingers. Yori had her right hand in a fist steady in front of Naito's face, while Tamiko had pulled her sword from somewhere and placed the flat across Deveraux's chest. The tableaux held for a moment, then Yori opened her hand to reveal a 9mm bullet. Naito stared in disbelief while Harada nodded wisely. Tamiko bent down and picked a flattened bullet off the ground, handing it to Deveraux, who accepted it numbly. "Holy crap," Harrison muttered softly, looking at the round in her fingers.

"Thanks," the Canadian managed in a soft voice. Tamiko smiled at her, making her sword go away.

"You're welcome."

Harada looked at Yori. "I heard three shots. Where did the third one go?" She looked annoyed, poking at a hole in her shirt.

"Right here, damn it. I like this shirt." He stared at her, then looked at the ground. There was another bullet lying there as flattened as the one in Deveraux's hand. Meeting his look with a raised eyebrow she shrugged slightly. He smiled.

"I thought so." Nodding back to him, she gave the bullet in her hand to Naito, then walked over to her partner, who was glaring at the man in her hands. The agent watched her, shaking slightly.

"Fuck me." Harada clapped him on the shoulder.

"I _told_ you they could catch bullets." The other man slowly turned to look at him.

"I'd much prefer that demonstration not be with one headed _right_ at my _face_." Sergeant Harada shrugged.

"She caught it. No problems." Naito glared at him. Grinning, the sergeant bent down and retrieved the third bullet from the ground, looking at it curiously. "It looks like it hit a steel plate," he said wonderingly. Glancing at Yori, who was talking to Chou, he laughed. "I'll bet there isn't even a bruise. Those girls are..." Harrison, Naito, and Deveraux all nodded. They knew what he meant.

Walking closer to the SWAT team member and their prisoners, they listened as Chou and Yori had a mild argument. The blonde was holding the man who had grabbed the gun by the scruff of the neck, the others noticing after a moment his feet were nearly clear of the ground. That explained the funny colour he was going. She was showing no sign of effort at all. "I need to talk with him. You said I could." Chou sounded irritated. Yori sighed a little.

"Oh, all right. Don't damage him too badly, it doesn't look good when he's already our prisoner." She smiled toothily.

"Oh, I'm only going to talk. I'll even heal his hand. That's nice of me, isn't it?" she asked the man, who rolled his eyes as he was unable to do anything else. Taking this as assent, she walked off towards a nearby alley holding the man at arms length, talking softly to him. Yori watched her go, then turned to the others. Everyone was looking at her.

"He'll live. Probably." She glanced over her shoulder. "I think." After a moment she swore mildly. "Damn. I'll be back in a minute." Hurrying after her partner she disappeared into the alley. Slight whimpering noises began to come out of it and everyone looked away, wincing one or twice as they got louder.

"Um, so, thanks again, all of you," Agent Naito said, looking nervously over his shoulder at one particularly loud squeak of distress. There was a distinct feeling of something unpleasant radiating from the alley. The SWAT men looked at each other then turned to inspect their prisoners, all of whom had their eyes shut. Aiko smiled uncertainly, her eyes twitching towards the alley every now and then, as did those of the other magical girls. They seemed to be reacting to something none of the others felt. She winced slightly then looked a little awed.

"Good grief," she muttered. Glancing at her team-mates, she shrugged a little. "You're welcome. It was fun." Something made her wince again. Quickly looking towards the alley she seemed to listen, then deliberately stop herself. "If you have any similar problems in the future, Sergeant Harada has our contact details." Harrison and Deveraux glanced at each other as the whimpers abruptly stopped, dead silence coming from the alley. Suddenly there was a faint scream, all the more worrying due to it's low volume. Everyone jumped, even the magical girls. Silence came back, broken after a while by footsteps accompanied by voices.

"Look, all I did was explain it wasn't nice to do what he did."

"It wasn't _what_ you said, dear, it was more how you _said_ it." The voices got closer. The various people outside the alley listened intently.

"It's not my fault if he had a weak constitution. Big bad Yakuza man like that, having a heart attack in the middle of a nice talk. That's just rude. Anyway, I restarted it for him. He'll be fine. I even fixed his hand like I said I would." They all exchanged glances. There was a resigned sigh.

"The fangs and tentacles were possibly a little much." Everyone stared.

"Says the one who dangles muggers by one foot from thirty metres up when lecturing them."

"I only did that once."

"That was enough." The two women emerged from the alley, Yori carrying the man over her shoulder as easily as if he was a rolled up blanket. He was as limp as one, certainly. She looked at the wide-eyed expressions pointed at them and smiled a little guiltily.

"Um. He had a bit of an accident. He's all better now, just a little fainted." Lowering the man carefully to the ground she slapped his face once or twice. "Come on, wake up. You have jail to look forward to." He moaned, his eyelids flickering, then he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Chou looking at him impassively over Yori's shoulder. Opening his mouth he made a choked little squeak of terror, sounding like someone had just stepped on a kitten, before screaming loudly and fainting again. Yori sighed irritably. "Oh, for god's sake." Poking him in a couple of places on his chest she looked satisfied as he jolted awake again. "Look at me. No, at me, not her. Listen. You're going to get up and go quietly with these nice men, OK? And if you plead guilty and tell them everything they want to know, I'll make sure you'll never see her again. Understand?" He nodded convulsively, his eyes fixed on hers. She smiled in a way that made everyone watching go cold.

"Don't let me down." He shook his head rapidly, unable to speak, staring at her like a mouse looking at a hawk. Satisfied she stood, glancing around at the various people staring at her with one eyebrow up. "What?"

After a long moment, the SWAT men collected the now-whimpering former Yakuza man from the ground, placing him with the other prisoners and rapidly leaving the vicinity of the terrifying young women. All of them felt much happier the further away they got. Aiko looked at Deveraux and Harrison. "Told you," she mouthed, both of them nodding. Chou was bad enough. For a moment, though, Yori had been the most horrifying thing they'd ever seen. That smile was one that Harrison would see in his nightmares for years.

Naito watched her for a moment more, then shook himself a little. "Um. Right. Anyway, I was just telling Aiko and her team how much we appreciated their help. That goes for you two as well. If it's not too much trouble, could you possibly submit some sort of report on this from your point of view, along with any conclusions and insights you might have? Please?" He sounded slightly worried. She nodded with a smile.

"Of course. We'll drop something in to the station tomorrow." The PSIA man relaxed a bit.

"Thank you. We still need to work out if those six devices are accounted for or still in play." Yori glanced at Chou, both of them looking upset and annoyed.

"That's very true. I'd like to think that we got them all, but the way life works, I somehow doubt it. I have a nasty feeling that they're going to turn up sooner or later, I just hope it's not with a lot of dead people as well." Naito didn't look happy about this prospect, nor did the others. Yori looked at Deveraux and Harrison, who jumped a little at the sudden attention. "So, how long are you guys sticking around for?" They glanced at each other, then Harrison answered.

"I'm not sure. You seem to have closed this part of the case, although how the hell we're going to explain it to the people back home I have no idea." Naito laughed.

"I can help you with that. We have a certain amount of experience framing this sort of thing in terms that your people will accept." Harrison looked grateful.

"Thanks. So, I guess we need to write up our reports, get them to the captain and our superiors, then we're off home." Yori looked at Aiko, who nodded slightly.

"See if you can get a few days holiday, as long as you're here you might as well enjoy it. No demon attacks or anything. If you would like, Aiko can teleport you home afterwards, it beats a fifteen hour flight." Harrison looked startled, staring at the other magical girl who grinned at him, then his colleague. Deveraux shrugged.

"Why not? I don't like flying at the best of times anyway." Harrison looked back at the black haired girl.

"OK. But that's going to be even harder to explain." She looked amused.

"No, just tell them that someone has offered private transportation. Free of charge. They'll probably love that."

"True."

Aiko smiled at him. "I can take you to an airport or somewhere else you can go through with your passport to make everything nice and legal. Or to your house if you don't care about that." He looked interested, then nodded.

"Probably best to do it more or less legitimately. We _are_ cops after all." She laughed.

"Fair enough." Glancing at her team-mates, she looked back at them. "Yori will call me when you need to leave. We have to get going now. Nice working with you." The four of them waved to Yori and Chou, smiled at the rest, then moved away a short distance. Deveraux and Harrison remembered just in time to look away as the flash came. Harada and Naito weren't as lucky.

"Damn, that was bright." Naito scrubbed at his streaming eyes. Yori snickered.

"Sorry, she was off so fast I didn't have time to warn you." Turning to Harrison and Deveraux she and Chou both held out their hands. "Like Aiko said, it's been fun. We'll see you tomorrow, I think." The visitors shook hands with both young women, who then waved to Naito and Harada, ran towards the nearest building, and jumped five stories straight up onto the roof. Within seconds they were gone. The four people left on the street looked up with a mix of expressions, mostly on the theme of awe.

"That was... very strange." Deveraux looked back at the others, who nodded.

"Most definitely." Naito shook his head in bemusement. "I've met some interesting people in this job, but those two are something else. Come on, I need something to eat. And drink. Definitely drink." The group of law enforcement people wandered off down the road.

* * *

Four days later Deveraux sat down next to Sergeant Harada at his desk, putting her bag on the floor and pushing it under the chair with her foot. He looked at her with a grin. "You have the tired eyes of someone who had a good night." She laughed.

"As far as I can remember." Leaning back in his chair, he dropped his pen on his desk and put his hands behind his head.

"It's been interesting and fun having you two here, Laura. Keep in touch." She nodded, smiling.

"I will, Tetsuo. There's no way I'm going to forget about all this. No matter how much I try." They were still laughing when Harrison stumbled in, looking pale and wan. Slumping in the other chair he stared blearily at them.

"How much did I drink last night?" he asked. Deveraux shook her head.

"No idea. You were still going when I passed out. I know _I_ had far too much, if that helps." He groaned.

"Not really." Looking at Harada he asked, "Do you have any aspirin?" The sergeant opened his desk and pulled out a small bottle, tossing it to the American. "Thanks." Swallowing three of them he handed the bottle back, then put his head on the desk. "Argh. I'll never drink again."

Deveraux snickered. "You always say that."

"I mean it," he mumbled into his arms.

"You always say that as well." Sighing heavily he didn't reply.

Yori and Chou entered a few minutes later, the former sitting on the edge of Harada's desk while the latter stood next to her. Both of them looked at Harrison with amusement. "Had a bit too much to drink, Lieutenant?" He nodded painfully. Chou glanced at Yori, who shrugged unsympathetically. "This is why I don't drink." The blonde woman sighed.

"Here." She reached out and placed her hand on Harrison's shoulder. A faint glow surrounded it for a few seconds. Removing it she asked, "How do you feel?" He blinked, surprised despite himself.

"Better, actually. A lot better. Thanks." She smiled.

"Try to drink less next time. Or at least drink a lot more water, your liver was having a hard time." He nodded. Deveraux had watched with renewed amazement, shaking her head.

"Where were you two when I was going through college?" she asked with bemusement. Chou grinned at her.

"So, have you enjoyed visiting Japan?" she asked. Deveraux exchanged a glance with her companion.

"Aside from the magical terrorists, getting in involved in a demon attack, and being scared shitless on a number of occasions, yes, it's been a real laugh," she replied, making Yori chuckle.

"Oh, come on, Inspector, it's not that bad." The older woman smiled.

"No, it's not, Yori. On the whole, yes, it's been very interesting. I've certainly made a number of friends." They grinned at each other. After a moment Yori produced two cards. Handing one to each of them, she said, "You might need these one day." Harrison looked at his with interest, realising what it was quickly. Deveraux did likewise. After a moment they exchanged cards, looking amazed as they saw that they were blank. Swapping them back the could read them again. "Wow. That's, well, that's kind of freaky." The Canadian looked at Yori, who seemed pleased.

"If you need the sort of help we can provide, call. Now that you know what to look for you might find it's more apparent. Or not. I don't know much about your homes. Just in case, though, hang on to those." She scowled for a moment. "I'm pretty sure there are still six of those damn portal bombs kicking around out there somewhere. I hope I'm wrong, but..." Harrison nodded slowly, exchanging a glance with his colleague.

"I understand. If something turns up, I'll call." Deveraux said much the same.

"Good. OK, if you're ready to go, I'll call Aiko." Harrison glanced at her.

"Can you give me five minutes? I'd like to say good-by to the captain." Yori nodded.

"Sure. We're in no hurry." Both visiting officers headed to Captain Uehara's office, Harrison knocking politely on the door-frame. She looked up, waving them in with a small smile.

"Hello, Lieutenant, Inspector. I assume you'll be leaving us soon?" Both of them nodded. She put her pen down and leaned back, looking at them carefully, before smiling again. "It's been an interesting time, certainly. Thank you for helping."

"Thank you, Ma'am, for allowing us to," Deveraux replied. Captain Uehara waved a hand.

"It's no real trouble. Compared to magical girls you two are pretty easy to deal with." She grinned at them. "Even if you do have the questionable judgement to take pot-shots at demons." Harrison laughed while Deveraux looked amused.

"I can assure you, Captain, that I have no intention of doing that again in a hurry. Preferably ever." She nodded at Harrison.

"Probably a good idea. Take care, and if you come back this way, please stop in and say hello." They nodded, reaching over the desk to shake her hand. Leaving the office they headed back to Harada's desk, where they found Agent Naito talking to the two martial artists and the sergeant.

"Ah, our visitors." He shook their hands. "I wanted to say good-bye, and also let you know the current condition of our mutual case. We've collated all the documents Chou passed on, along with other information we dug up, and we're almost certain we got everyone involved. There were never more than about ten of them in total, and you accounted for at least two of those back in LA. We have the rest, except for the mage, who our friends here dealt with. The bad news is that we are also almost certain that those six possibly missing portal devices are actually missing." He frowned. "The records we have show that the damn mage visited at least a dozen cities all over the world in the last year or so, as far as we can tell. That's just via normal air travel. Once you bring possible teleportation into it he could have gone to dozens more. Those things could be almost anywhere." He looked seriously at them. "Including LA and Toronto, we know he went to both places." Deveraux sighed heavily while Harrison looked worried.

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Naito shrugged.

"Sorry. We don't have any way, as far as we know, to track them. Yori here thinks it might be possible, but even if it is you'd have to be quite close to one to detect it." The black-haired young woman nodded.

"They're shielded quite well, so even under ideal circumstances you'd have to be within about three or four hundred metres. If they're underground, it might be half that." Chou looked at them.

"The bigger problem is that if they are out there somewhere, active, they're going to go off within less than eight months at the outside. That's the maximum timer delay." She didn't look happy. "Hopefully they're all in Minato, where we can deal with them quickly. I'm not looking forward to that, but it's the best possible scenario. If they're somewhere else..." She trailed off, while the others all looked worried.

"We'll sweep the district, the entire ward if we have to, but to be honest I'm not expecting to find them here, at least not all of them. So keep your eyes open." Yori looked at each of them. "If you hear about anything that might be one, call us. We'll come and deal with it." Harrison nodded soberly, looking at the card she had given him again, before putting it carefully away in his wallet. Chou handed him one as well, giving one to the RCMP officer too.

"Just in case." She smiled at them. After a moment, Yori cracked her knuckles, making everybody jump.

"Right. Ready?" They both nodded. Pulling out her phone she placed a quick call. Seconds later Aiko appeared in the middle of the room, making a number of officers jump and one spill his coffee.

"Oops. Sorry," she said with a smile. He looked slightly annoyed but smiled back, wiping his desk. Walking over to Yori she greeted her, then turned to the two North Americans. "Hi. Which one first, and where to?" They looked at each other. Deveraux raised her hand.

"Can you do Toronto International?"

"Yep, been there a couple of times. Airside, I guess, so you go through passport control?" Deveraux nodded. Aiko glanced at Harrison.

"I expect you want LAX?" He nodded as well. "No problem." Waving them to a clear area, she waved to Yori and Chou. "See you guys in a bit."

Harrison and Deveraux waved to the people they had come to know as friends, then disappeared in a bright flash. Naito swore. Harada grinned, opening his eyes.

"You forgot, didn't you?"

"Yes, damn it. Bloody magical girls." Yori snickered while Chou sighed gently.


	22. Chapter 21

"Holy shit!" Nabiki said, staring at her sister and brother-in-law as they finished recounting their story. Ranma looked amused. Kasumi giggled, while her sister gaped at them. "That's all true?" Kasumi nodded.

"Oh yes. It was quite interesting."

"Magical terrorist cultists? Demon portal time-bombs? Magical girls and SWAT teams, with international police observers?" The middle sister shook her head slowly, still staring at them. "When did I fall into some sort of manga or anime series?" Ranma laughed, getting up to refill the coffee-pot.

"Quite a while ago, I think. Years, at least." Nabiki watched him walk off chuckling to himself.

"Idiot." Kasumi giggled again, moving over to put her arm around her sister. "It's like the plot of a bad clone of a Tom Clancy novel with added magic and martial arts," the younger woman commented.

"I know. But it's all true, I'm afraid." Nabiki looked at Kasumi for a moment then snickered.

"I wonder who will play you two in the movie version?" Kasumi burst out laughing.

"From what Agent Naito was saying they're doing everything they can to keep it quiet. I think a movie would cause a collective coronary in the political and intelligence establishments. _We_ certainly have no particular need to spread it around. It would just make people worried." Nabiki nodded thoughtfully.

"I guess so. Thanks for telling me, though. I saw the news report that just said a criminal gang had been arrested in Minato but not before setting off a bomb to cover their activities. I assume that was the cover story for the damage to the building?" Kasumi nodded. Ranma came back and poured them all coffee, sitting down again.

"It's kind of true in a way. The best cover stories always rely on the truth." Accepting a mug from him with a smile, she thought about it for a moment.

"What will happen to the cultists?" He shrugged.

"Buried in a deep cell for a very long time, I would think. I don't have a lot of sympathy for those bastards, they're responsible for the deaths of over fifty people and were aiming for possibly hundreds of thousands. They're dangerous scum." He took a drink, frowning in recollection. With a shake of his head he added, "I really can't put myself in the mindset of someone like that no matter how much I try. To want to kill so many people, randomly.." The martial artist looked appalled. "It's hard enough for me to kill even if there is imminent danger to someone, although I have had to more than once. These people, though..." He fell silent again appearing both angry and confused. Kasumi looked at him sympathetically.

"Don't try. It only worries you. Accept the fact that some things we'll just never understand, which is quite possibly for the best. We simply have to try to keep these things from getting out of hand." Her sister watched them for a moment.

"By the sound of it you did a very good job two weeks ago. On behalf of one of the non-super-powered inhabitants of the city, thanks." She grinned at them. Ranma seemed to cheer up a bit, smiling back at her.

"You're welcome. Hopefully it will go back to normal intermittent demons, something nice and sensible." She stared for a moment, then laughed.

"You have a very strange definition of both '_normal_' and '_sensible_'. Shrugging, he sipped his coffee, an amused look on his face.

After a moment, she asked, "So, you think there still might be as many as six of those things out there waiting to go off?" Kasumi nodded again.

"Unfortunately, that's looking very likely. I had another look at the paperwork we collected as well as the other information Agent Naito's team found and it all hangs together. There are at least four, probably all six, of the devices that the records show were made unaccounted for. It could have been much worse but that's bad enough." She sighed. "Ranma is probably right, it would be too much to hope they're all in Minato where the results could be dealt with more or less easily. We know the first six were used here, presumably as tests, but it seems very likely that he would then try a small-scale test somewhere else where no one had the experience or ability to quickly deal with the results."

"We've swept the entire ward twice, we called in all the help we could manage from magical girl teams and various demons we're on good terms with, but so far nothing has turned up," Ranma said, looking worried. "It's still possible that one or two are around here somewhere, hidden away behind really good shielding, but it looks much more likely that the mage managed to put them somewhere else."

"The one good bit of news we found out is that we're nearly certain that he didn't do much if any teleporting. It looks from his records that even the teleport spell the original suspects used in LA was bought in. He seems to have had a fair amount of skill at stitching different spells together, but not a lot of experience in using them. He was quite young and not very experienced although he had an unpleasantly imaginative bent for coming up with ways to weaponise magic." Kasumi looked grim. "It's a pity that the only use he could think of for that skill was to try to cause the end of the world." She stopped talking and drank some coffee, glancing at her husband who was looking out the window with a distant expression on his face for a moment.

"So it seems likely that the list of places he could have placed the devices is fairly short, something like fifteen cities we know he visited in the time period over which we think he finished the prototypes. LA, New York, Detroit, and Washington in the US, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver in Canada, Mexico City, Moscow, Warsaw in Poland, London and Birmingham in the UK, Sydney in Australia, Paris, and Beijing." Ranma looked at her for a moment.

"And the rest of Tokyo." She nodded after a moment.

"Yes. True."

"Damn," Nabiki said eventually, going over the list of places around the world. "Almost all cities with large populations, very crowded, all over the planet. Presumably the idea was to hit them all more or less at once?" Ranma looked back at them, coming back from wherever his mind had been.

"Not quite. They seem to have discounted a single massive attack in favour of a constant stream of random, smaller, but still quite serious ones going on possibly for years. Presumably he was scouting out all the possible places he could put the large batch, we don't know if he actually planted any of them in any of those places. But we don't know he _didn't_, either." The dark-haired young man didn't look pleased about that. "I wish I hadn't killed the bastard, we could ask him directly, but at the time it was about the only thing I could do. Pity, though." Appearing depressed, he added, "That's the first completely human person I've ever killed. Not that it should really matter, killing is killing, whether the person is human or not, but..." Kasumi looked at him sympathetically, as did Nabiki.

"You had no choice. If you hadn't dealt with him like that I probably would have had to. He wasn't sane, he _was_ extremely dangerous. We both gave him several chances to surrender but all he did was try to kill us four separate times. He was about to release more of those demons, we might well have been overrun, which would have let them out into the street." Ranma sighed with an unhappy scowl.

"You're right of course. I don't think he was going to surrender no matter what. He was a true believer. By which I mean completely crazy. But it doesn't make it any easier." Nabiki put her empty mug down, leaning against Kasumi with a slight shiver.

"God, it makes me ill to think of what could happen." The young man sighed.

"It's more than '_could_' happen, it's almost certain that it '_will_' happen, eventually. If those things really are still in play, they will time out and go off sooner or later. Within a bit less than eight months, Kas thinks from looking at his notes."

"Fuck."

"Yep."

There was silence for a while as they all thought about it. Eventually Nabiki spoke. "One thing I was wondering. All the demons were the same, this really aggressive and difficult to kill thing like that one I saw the night I found you guys, except for the last set, the ones that Aiko and her team were fighting when those foreign cops jumped in. What changed?" Kasumi looked at her.

"Our best guess is that the demons that came through that portal were actually hunting the one the device was targeted on. The intent was definitely to bring through only that one type, they're extremely tough and not very bright, but horribly bloodthirsty. The ones that arrived are ones we've encountered before once or twice. Their name is almost unpronounceable, we tend to call them tripods, for obvious reasons. They're quite smart and very quick, they travel around in packs hunting for sport more than anything else."

"So they went after the demon the portal was supposed to bring at exactly the right moment and fell through the portal instead?" Nabiki asked. Ranma nodded.

"Or went through deliberately. No idea, they're unpredictable. Whatever the reason, they ended up here. Aiko and the girls were, luckily, in almost exactly the right place at exactly the right time, completely by coincidence. Even so it got pretty unpleasant, if Lieutenant Harrison and Inspector Deveraux hadn't been there they might have lost Fumiko at the least." Nabiki shivered again. It brought home once more how dangerous the magical girl job could be.

"I'm glad they were there. I like Fumiko and the rest." Kasumi smiled.

"We all do, they're very nice people as well as good friends." Her sister glanced at her.

"Can you really heal injuries that severe?"

"Oh, my, yes, bones are easy, the organs are a little more difficult but Ranma is very good at them. The poison was the most problematic, but we've seen it before." She seemed quietly confident, her sister looking at her in wonder. Ranma chuckled.

"That's the same expression the Inspector had." She looked at him and stuck out her tongue, making him laugh again. "The thing that could have been fatal was the bullet I caught that nearly hit Agent Naito. It was headed right between his eyes. That would have been very nasty." The middle sister smiled.

"I'll bet he was surprised."

"And very grateful. He had the weirdest expression, but he thanked me quite a lot the next day when he recovered from the shock." Ranma seemed pleased. "I like him, I'm glad I was there to stop him dying."

"Probably not as much as he was." Nabiki snickered. He grinned at her.

"I imagine not." The younger Tendo looked at both her companions.

"OK, changing the subject away from this very worrying and depressing one, have you given any more thought to a visit to Nerima?" Kasumi smiled with a nod.

"Actually, yes. We should have a bit of a break coming up in about three weeks, around the middle of November. Would that suit you?" Nabiki nodded happily.

"Definitely. That matches nicely with some time off I'll have, for outside study. I can lose a day or two from it no problems, I'm way ahead in my coursework."

"Good. We'll have to double check the exact date but lets say the second weekend in November, subject to change, demon attack, or the end of the world. In that case we can reschedule." She giggled while her sister looked at her with a small sigh.

"Very weird, sis, very weird indeed. Fine. I'll alert everyone at home that I'll be having visitors then." She looked across at Ranma who was uncharacteristically silent to find him looking out the window again. "You still with us Saotome?" she asked. With a slight twitch he turned his head.

"Yes. Sorry. Just thinking about everything that happened recently, trying to work out if I should have done anything differently." The brunette nodded understandingly.

"Don't get too caught up in it. Like you told me, it's pointless trying to change the past. You need to move on, not dwell on it." He studied her for a moment then smiled.

"Sound advice. Fortune cookie?" She laughed.

"Martial artist, family member, and friend. All three of them give good advice."

They grinned at each other for a moment. After a few seconds, he asked, "How's Akane doing?" She looked suddenly worried.

"Um, not as well as I'd like. She started making some real progress last month for a week or two, then for some reason sort of backslid, ending up worse than she's been for some time. Her temper has been horrible the last couple of weeks. It's slowly getting better again but at this rate it'll take another month to get back to the point she was at three months ago." Nabiki sighed, folding her arms and staring at the table. "I really had hopes that it was finally starting to work for a while."

"I'm sorry to hear that," he replied quietly. Kasumi hugged her sister.

"Poor Akane." Curiously, she asked, "Did anything change over that time? Different diet, different environment, some sort of shock or upset?" Nabiki shook her head.

"Nothing that I can think of. I wondered the same thing and checked everything I could come up with, nothing seems to be different. The only thing even slightly out of the ordinary is that her friend Sayuri got back together with her boyfriend, which if anything made her happy." She looked thoughtful. "That said, it _was_ about the same time, maybe a day or two before." Kasumi glanced at her husband.

"That's a bit of a coincidence. But if they're connected, how?" Nabiki shrugged.

"No idea. I haven't talked to Sayuri for months myself. I know she breaks up with Hiroshi pretty regularly, although I don't know why, and always ends up with Akane cheering her up. A few days to weeks later she gets back together with him and it all starts over again. This last breakup lasted longer than any others, though." Looking at the other two, she asked, "How could it be connected to Akane's mood? Unless she really gets upset when her friends are as well." Ranma snorted.

"Based on my own experience she never seemed to notice other peoples feelings very much at all. But I guess that might have changed." Kasumi glanced at him reprovingly.

"That _is_ my sister we're talking about, dear." He looked abashed.

"Sorry, Kas. But you know what I mean." She nodded unhappily.

"Unfortunately."

There was silence for a while as they considered the issue. Eventually, Nabiki looked up. "I just had a thought." She went quiet again while the other two watched her curiously, then slowly shook her head. "It makes a weird kind of sense. But, why now?" She muttered to herself for a moment, then shook her head again. Kasumi and Ranma exchanged glances wondering what she was thinking. "Damn. How could we find out?"

"What, Nabs?" She looked at Ranma for a moment.

"Don't call me Nabs." He grinned. "OK, I'm probably wrong. But..." She shrugged very slightly. "It almost makes sense, for at least part of all this." Kasumi and Ranma exchanged glances again.

"_What?_" they chorused. The middle sister sighed.

"We have all thought at one point or another that Akane might be a repressed lesbian or bisexual, right?" They nodded. "And she is very immature in sexual matters, to the point that she suppresses any thoughts along the lines of sex at all, actively getting hostile when the subject is brought up." They nodded again. "What if she has a crush on Sayuri? Or is actually in love with her on some level?" Both of the others stared for a few seconds, then looked at each other. Kasumi slowly nodded while Ranma closed his eyes and sighed.

"Oh, hell. Yes, that's entirely possible. She probably wouldn't even realise it consciously. She's known Sayuri for what, ten years or more?" Kasumi nodded.

"Since primary school, actually. Almost all her life. At one point they were almost inseparable, they went everywhere together. Half way through junior high Sayuri discovered boys, which is normal of course, but I remember Akane was depressed that she was going on dates and didn't have time to be with her." The older Tendo thought. "In fact, now that I think about it, it was around then that she started to talk about boys being perverts all the time." Nabiki nodded.

"Yes, I remember. She got all moody for a couple of months, wouldn't come out of her room most of the time, then one day cheered up a bit but has been really dismissive of males ever since. Which got a lot worse when that damn Kuno fool started the whole '_beat Akane to win her hand_' crap. Then you came along and _really_ confused the issue." She looked at Ranma, who half-smiled back.

"Sorry." She flipped her hand, brushing the issue away.

"Not your fault. But you see what I mean? It all kind of fits. Probable lesbian tendencies, long-standing crush on a close female friend, repressed sexual development, feelings of abandonment when said friend starts noticing the other sex, and so on. I don't know enough psychology to frame it correctly but I have a horrible feeling it hangs together. So, when Sayuri breaks up and comes running back to Akane for comfort, she's sad for her friend because at heart she is a decent person, but subconsciously pleased because it means she can be with her. When she makes up again she's consciously happy because her friend is but underneath that feels abandoned all over again." Kasumi and her husband were nodding as she spoke.

"And this last time, it was a longer break-up than any of the others, which might have made her think it was permanent. So she improves in other ways as well. When Sayuri goes back to Hiroshi it hits her hard and she gets worse than she's been for some time," the elder sister said slowly.

"Yes, exactly." Nabiki looked both irritated and sad. "The sad thing is that I don't think, even if this is right, that she realises it at all. If she did it might be something she could work out in therapy, but I know the doctor is skating around the issue of sex because it provokes such a bad reaction. That should be a clue it's important, I should have seen it before. I would imagine the doctor has a good idea, she's pretty shrewd, but whether there's anything she can do..." Sighing heavily again she picked up her cup and finished the coffee, putting it down with a clunk and leaning back on the sofa. "Damn it."

Ranma watched her for a moment. "As sharp as ever, Nabiki. I hadn't thought of any of that at all but it holds together." For some reason the praise didn't cheer her up. His brow furrowed a little. "It would neatly explain a number of things, and certainly add fuel to the fire of her anger, but what started the fire in the first place? She's much too short tempered even at the best of times, explosive rage isn't normal even for a very sexually repressed person." Nabiki shook her head in response.

"No, it's not. And I don't know. There's certainly something wrong I'm sure, some psychological problem way down at the bottom of her mind, but what it is..." She shrugged helplessly. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"If you're right about this, and I have to say it sounds likely, I wonder how we can deal with it?" Kasumi said. Nabiki frowned.

"I'm not sure. I should have a word with her doctor, tell her what we discussed, in case it's not something she's aware of. She won't tell me much, doctor-patient confidentiality issues get in the way, but because I'm Akane's sister I might be able to talk to her about it a little." They were all quiet for a while. Ranma broke the silence.

"I did ask around a few people I know in the university. No one could come up with any radical insight for methods to treat someone with the symptoms I described other than what's already been attempted, but a couple of people suggested that it's possible that there might be a physical cause for her anger issues, or at least part of them. One doctor I talked to last week asked if this had come on quite suddenly. When I asked why, he said that there are some rare cases of hormonal imbalances caused intermittent explosive disorder which this sounded like. I looked it up and while that diagnosis fits some of the symptoms it's not right for all of them, and she's also missing some other ones." Nabiki looked interested.

"I haven't heard of that."

"It's a psychological disorder that's characterised by sudden wildly disproportionate outbursts of anger, often very violent and destructive, followed by feelings of relief and pleasure that often turn into guilt. Sounds familiar." She nodded. Kasumi glanced at her husband.

"Surely the doctor she's seeing would have considered that? After all, as you say, it's rare but not that rare." He shrugged.

"True. I don't know, it's not something I have any experience of. I'm just suggesting something like that as a possibility."

"Assuming it was something along those lines, what could be done?" Nabiki looked at the martial artist inquiringly.

"Well, in a normal case of IED, pretty much exactly what's being done at the moment, therapy and probably some sort of mood regulating drug regime. No one is entirely sure what the root cause of it is, there's probably more than one like in many of these conditions. If there's a physical cause, though, finding and fixing it could make the psychological treatment much more effective. Say there really was some weird sort of hormonal issue which started all of this. If it began years ago, which seems likely, it will be so deeply engrained in her mind that simply removing the original organic problem wouldn't necessarily fix the learned psychological responses, but it _might_ mean that the therapy would stand a much higher chance of working." The middle sister suddenly looked hopeful.

"Do you think you two could find out if she has anything like that and heal it?" Kasumi shared a look with Ranma for a moment.

"Perhaps," she said slowly, thinking it over. "It would probably be very subtle. Most of the things I can think of that might have the effect we're talking about would have other symptoms which would be very noticeable by now. But it's possible, I suppose, that there might be something else along those lines that's involved. We'd need to scan her thoroughly, and even then I'm not sure we'd necessarily find anything, but it's worth a try."

Nabiki looked slightly hopeful. "You could do that when you visit."

"Ah, there is a slight problem with that," Ranma said. "Don't forget using the ki healing and scanning methods produces some rather obvious visual effects. If we're visiting as your medical student friends that might be kind of hard to explain. As would why we were scanning her with special techniques in the first place. It could lead to questions we don't want to answer." The middle Tendo's face fell.

"Oh, damn. You're right." She pondered the problem as did the other two. "We could have Yori and Chou visit?"

"How do you explain meeting them? And why would they have any more reason to check Akane than Rika and Maiko?" Nabiki looked at her sister with irritation.

"I have no idea." Kasumi smiled gently at her.

"Don't get worked up, sister, we'll figure it out." A few minutes later she looked pleased. "Ah. Of course. It's easy." Ranma and his sister in law looked at her. "We have access to a number of properties around Tokyo, mostly in Minato but a few elsewhere. Some are ones we rent or own, most belong to friends." Nabiki looked interested.

"You own more places than this building?" This was the first she'd heard of it. Kasumi nodded, amused.

"A few small flats, nothing as grand as this. Safe-houses like the one we used during that recent affair. It's not important at the moment. The thing is that I do know someone who could probably lend us the use of a small office, near Nerima so it has no likelihood of being traced back to us." Her sister looked puzzled.

"So?"

"So, what we could do is borrow that office, then set ourselves up as a medical consultant firm. It's no problem to produce some new personae for the purpose, obviously. They don't need to have any documentation, no one will check. You tell Akane that you've been doing some research and have found a consultant who might be able to help diagnose any possible problems, having been guided in that direction by your friends Rika and Maiko, who are after all nearly doctors. I would imagine you could persuade her to visit this person especially as she's as keen to get cured now as we are to have her cured. We could come up with some reason that she needed to be scanned with some sort of high-tech machinery, which involves sedation. Then we can get a look at her without her knowing the truth."

Nabiki stared at her sister for several seconds, then exchanged a glance with Ranma, who shrugged. He was also looking at his wife in wonder. "That's the most ridiculous, over-elaborate plan I've ever heard of, Kasumi," she finally said. Kasumi smiled a little.

"But do you think it would work?"

"Probably." They grinned at each other. "So, presuming we can get her to go along with this silly charade, then what? If you find something and fix it what do we tell her?" Kasumi laughed.

"That's the good part. We don't have to tell her anything. She'll never know. She comes along, we sedate her, or more accurately we make her unconscious with some pressure points which is safer, scan her, and if we find anything, fix it. Assuming it's fixable, of course. Then when she wakes up tell her the scans were inconclusive and that she should continue with her existing treatment. She gets helped without ever knowing or suspecting who we are." The older sister smiled at the younger one who looked impressed.

"It's ridiculous. But it should work." Nabiki shook her head. "This would be so much easier if we could just tell her everything."

"You know why we can't. Even hinting at it could lead to problems both in the short and long term." Ranma looked sympathetically at her. She grunted.

"I know. But it's so convoluted just to have one sister help another." The brunette looked frustrated. He smiled sadly.

"I agree." Kasumi looked at Nabiki.

"If there is anything to fix and we can fix it, there's a good chance the therapy will work given some time. That might mean we could visit as ourselves one day." Ranma appeared dubious but nodded when his wife gave him a look.

"I suppose. There's more to it than Akane, but it would certainly help."

With a much happier smile at the thought that perhaps her sister might come home again one day, Nabiki asked eagerly, "So when could you set all this up?" Kasumi thought for a moment. "I'll have to call my friend and arrange use of the office, which might take a few weeks to set up. We'd need a time when they were able to close up for a day. Possibly over a weekend. Then we would need to design some convincing personae for the job, get some practice with them... I can't see it happening before the end of the month at the earliest." Her face falling slightly, Nabiki looked mildly disappointed.

"OK." She cheered up after a moment. "Which one will be the doctor and which the nurse?" Ranma and Kasumi looked at each other, then started a game of rock paper scissors. Nabiki began giggling manically.


	23. Chapter 22

"Your friends should be here soon, I believe, Nabiki?" Nodoka glanced at the middle sister as she restocked the refrigerator. The brunette nodded, checking a list while looking through a number of bags on the kitchen table.

"Yes, their train gets in at the station in about forty-five minutes. I'm going to go and meet them there, I have to leave by half past ten." Nodoka looked at her watch.

"That's in five minutes."

"Oh." Nabiki checked her own watch, looking surprised. "I didn't realise it was already that late." Quickly scanning the list she dropped it on the table, appearing satisfied. "Looks like we have everything. I'd better go. I'm going to show them around on the way back, we'll probably get here around half past one, if that's all right." Nodoka smiled.

"Of course. I'll make lunch for two, then." Looking at the older woman gratefully Nabiki nodded once more.

"Thanks. Do you know where Akane is?" The auburn-haired woman shook her head.

"I'm afraid not. She was in the yard about half an hour ago but I haven't seen her since then."

Leaving the kitchen Nabiki checked in her sister's bedroom finding it unoccupied. Going out to the Dojo she located Akane going through a set of Anything Goes katas, stopping and watching for a moment while thinking that even though by most standards she was very good, compared to Kasumi it looked slow and clumsy. Compared to Ranma she was a dancing hippo. With a small inner grin, but at the same time feeling a little guilty for the meanness of the thought, she called to her sister. "Akane? I'm just going to pick up Rika and Maiko. I'll be back in about three hours. Is there anything you need me to pick up while I'm out?" The blue haired young woman glanced at her for a moment before going back to concentrating on what she was doing.

"No, thank you. Have a nice time with your friends, I'm looking forward to meeting them." About to leave, Nabiki stopped then turned back.

"When are Father and Genma getting back?" The two fathers had given their students a day off, going to a Shogi tournament in the next ward. Akane shrugged, nearly fumbling the next move in the kata then looking momentarily irritated with herself.

"Don't know for sure," she mumbled, trying to get back into the flow of the movement. "Some time this evening I think."

"Thanks." She smiled at her sister then walked out of the Dojo. Walking back around the house and heading out of the gate she waved at Nodoka through the kitchen window, who waved back. Half an hour later she was standing on the train platform waiting for the 11.10 train from Minato. It turned up on time as usual, pulling smoothly to a halt and opening it's doors. A relatively small number of people got off as at this time of day on a weekend most travellers were going in the other direction. Amongst the people exiting the carriage next to where she was standing she recognised the familiar forms of her disguised sister and sister-in-law, who grinned at her.

"Hi, Nabiki," 'Maiko' said, while 'Rika' hugged her.

"Hello you two. Was the trip OK?" They nodded.

"Pretty smooth", the smaller brunette women said. "I haven't done a lot of travel by train for a while, it seems slower than I remember." Nabiki laughed.

"That's because you spend so much time travelling by less common methods." Heading out of the station they walked down the road, the two visitors looking around with interest.

"Been a while. It looks more or less the same." 'Maiko' inspected a shop they were passing. "Didn't that used to be a bookshop?"

"Yes, it closed down about nine months ago, I think the owner retired. Now it's some sort of dressmakers." 'Rika' also noticed several other differences as they moved on. Talking and laughing, the three of them slowly headed in roughly the direction of the Dojo, in no particular hurry.

Stopping at a café near the central shopping area of Furinkan, they decided to have a small snack. 'Rika' sipped her tea while inspecting the immediate area. "I remember all this so well," she said quietly, "but it almost seems like another life. I used to buy groceries over there. That was where the tea came from. Around the corner is the butcher." Her sister listened to her with interest, sharing a glance with 'Maiko'. "It all seems so long ago."

"Do you miss it?" Nabiki asked, eventually. 'Rika' smiled slightly.

"Of course, in some ways I do. Most of my life was spent here. But in other ways, precisely because of that, I'm so very glad to have moved on." The middle sister nodded slowly while sipping her own tea.

"I think I understand." They sat in silence for a while just enjoying the day, which while rather chilly was still sunny. Hot air came out of the cafe door immediately behind them, warming the vicinity fairly well. They'd decided to sit just outside so they could have a good view although most of the café's patrons were inside where it was warmer. "I spoke to Akane's doctor, by the way. I meant to call you and tell you but I ran into a problem with my coursework and lost track of the time. She said the IED diagnosis was one she'd considered but there were some troubling differences. She wouldn't go into details although she agreed it sounded very similar." 'Maiko' and 'Rika' nodded thoughtfully.

"The idea about Sayuri, though, was one she found very interesting. Apparently she hasn't been able to get very much if anything out of Akane about her relationships with anyone but a certain martial artist. _Him_ she wouldn't stop talking about for ages." 'Maiko' grimaced slightly while she smiled a little. "I went into some detail about our suspicions. She asked a lot of questions about the background of Akane and Sayuri, then went quiet about it. Again, she wouldn't be drawn much on any of it but she looked very thoughtful and thanked me for the information." The young woman shrugged. "Whether it will help I have no idea, but at least she has the information now. Akane certainly wasn't going to tell her, assuming she even realises it herself. And, of course, assuming we were right in any way at all."

"How has she been the last couple of weeks?" 'Rika' looked at her sister, concerned.

Nabiki sighed slightly. "Up and down. On the whole, getting better, I think, but slowly. She seems to have been spending a lot of time practising the Art, or what she knows of it. That's what she was doing when I left. Auntie Nodoka says she's spending most of her free time doing that recently. It seems to calm her down if nothing else." 'Maiko' glanced at her wife, then looked back to Nabiki.

"How is she coming along with it?" She was very curious.

"It's... difficult to say, really. I'm not a real expert. That said, she's visibly improved in the last few months, but even so she's so far behind, for example, 'Yori' and 'Chou'," she looked around slightly guiltily, not sure whether she should mention those names, but reassured when 'Maiko' nodded, unconcerned, "that's it's very obvious indeed. I think that to a more normal practitioner of martial arts she'd be considered very good, but by the standards of the NWC she's only improved a fairly small amount."

"Any improvement is good. It will hopefully produce a more disciplined approach to life if she keeps at it, which can only help," her sister-in-law said with some approval in her voice.

"I suppose." Nabiki's tone of voice was a little dubious. She glanced off to the left as a flash of blue caught her attention, then froze. "Um, Shampoo is heading this way..." 'Maiko' and 'Rika' exchanged quick looks but schooled their expressions into polite smiles as the Amazon girl noticed Nabiki and approached. As she walked closer Nabiki hissed out of the corner of her mouth, "Will she detect anything funny from you two?" 'Rika' shook her head nearly imperceptibly.

"No," she replied very quietly, "we're masking it. She shouldn't feel anything, although Cologne might." She stopped talking as the young woman they were watching came within earshot.

"Hello, Nabiki. I haven't seen you for a while." She looked curiously at the two people she didn't recognise. With a certain amount of inner trepidation Nabiki made the introductions.

"These are a couple of friends of mine from university, Rika and Maiko. They're medical students." Shampoo nodded.

"Yes, I remember Akane mentioning them. Hello, I'm Shampoo." She held out her hand. Nabiki held her breath for a moment wondering whether she'd somehow see through the disguises but apparently the Chinese woman saw nothing but what was apparent, two young Japanese females she'd never met before. The mannerisms, voices, and appearances were perfect and nothing like the real Ranma or Kasumi. She was so used to them by now she sometimes forgot quite how startled she'd been the first time. 'Maiko' stood and politely shook hands with the woman who had caused her so much trouble for years without Shampoo having the slightest idea how close she was to her errant 'fiancé'. The middle Tendo had a sudden urge to burst into hysterical laughter at the thought but suppressed it forcefully.

Sitting down again 'Maiko' waited until 'Rika' had also shaken hands, then asked, 'Shampoo? That's an odd name." She looked momentarily confused, then enlightenment crossed her face. "Ah, yes, I remember, Nabiki mentioned you, you're from a village of warrior women in China, am I right?" Shampoo nodded with a smile. "So, it should be something like Xian Pu, I think." She pronounced the Chinese version of Shampoo's name perfectly, making the Amazon look slightly surprised.

"Yes, that's correct. Most Japanese people don't seem to be able to pronounce it properly, I've got used to it over the years. Only my great-grandmother calls me that now." She grinned. "It's nice to hear it spoken correctly." 'Maiko' smiled, then said something in Mandarin. "Very good. Your accent is a little strange but that's much better than most people here can manage." Shampoo looked impressed. The petite brunette woman thanked her for the compliment, while Nabiki listened with interest.

"I'm afraid I don't know much Mandarin, only a few dozen useful phrases so far, but I'm learning. I can understand a bit more than I can speak. Some fellow students at university are teaching Rika and me, while we help them with Japanese." 'Maiko' smiled. Shampoo looked amused and said something, to which the other woman nodded with a laugh. "OK, I got about half of that. Something about it being nice to talk to someone in a sensible language?"

"Yes. You know quite a lot of Mandarin." The brunette shook her head with her long braid waving around.

"Oh, no, I've only been learning for a year or so. It's a very complicated language." 'Rika' looked at her companion with a smile and also said something in Mandarin, leaving Nabiki wondering what she was talking about. Shampoo burst into laughter.

"I think you mean mother not horse." 'Rika' looked embarrassed.

"Yes. Sorry, those rising and falling tones in Mandarin always confuse me." Giggling, Shampoo glanced at Nabiki, who waved her to a chair. Sitting down she talked for a little while, correcting a few words the pair tried on her.

"Not bad. Keep at it, you'll get it in the end. It took me years to learn Japanese properly, I'm not good with languages at all." She sighed. "I sounded like an idiot when I first got here." Nabiki snickered a little.

"You certainly did." The Amazon flushed, glaring at the other woman, who laughed. "You said it, not me." After a moment the other smiled a bit.

"Fair enough." She looked back to the two new people. "I'm trying to earn English now, it seems a useful one to have. But it's really difficult. There doesn't seem to be a lot of sense to it." 'Rika' smiled.

"No, it's a surprisingly complicated language in some ways. There are lots of rules, but about the only consistency with them is how inconsistently they're applied."

"Can you speak it?" Shampoo asked curiously. They both nodded.

"Yes, we're both actually very fluent in English, we learned quite a lot at school, then more at university and from dealing with people from overseas. We meet a lot of North Americans and Europeans, English is nearly the only common language we have. Hardly anyone from either place speaks Japanese very well." 'Maiko' grinned. "Sometimes they _think_ they do, but often the result is very funny." Shampoo looked amused.

"How long are you visiting for?" 'Rika' smiled at her.

"We're going to be here for the weekend. Nabiki invited us ages ago but we couldn't get away until now. We're both looking forward to meeting the rest of her family." Shampoo nodded, looking momentarily pensive.

"Not all of them." The other woman raised her eyebrows then looked understanding.

"Oh. Yes, Nabiki mentioned something happened about four years ago." Shampoo sighed with a slightly lost expression while Nabiki and the others watched her curiously wondering what she would say.

"It's a shame. Kasumi, the oldest sister, was such a nice person. I hope she's all right wherever she is. And..." Trailing off she stopped talking with a distant look in her eyes. "And... him." They exchanged glances. She didn't notice, lost in her memories for a moment. After a few seconds she shook herself. "Never mind. It's all in the past." Looking at them she smiled, slightly sadly. "If you get time drop in to the Cat Café. Nabiki can show you where it is. My great grandmother runs it. We do some very good ramen." Standing, she nodded to them, then walked away still looking a bit depressed. When she was safely out of range, Nabiki looked at her disguised sister-in-law, who was watching the distant form with the long lilac hair, a certain amount of pity in her eyes.

"She's still holding a torch, you know. I think she will for years, possibly forever." 'Maiko' nodded slowly.

"I can see that. Poor Shampoo, despite all the problems I never wanted to hurt her like that. Kill her sometimes, yes, but not hurt her emotionally." She sighed. Nabiki studied her for a moment.

"Are you going to go to the Café?" she asked. The two women looked at each other for a moment.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. Cologne is no fool, she might detect something. Not the right thing almost certainly, but _something_. I don't want to make her curious about us." 'Maiko' looked very slightly worried. "Not right now, certainly. We've got enough on our plates without Amazon Elders poking their noses in." Chuckling, Nabiki could only agree.

"What do you want to tell people if they ask where you're from, or where we met?" the middle sister asked as they left the cafe. 'Maiko' and 'Rika' thought about the question for a while.

"Well, we can sidestep both questions a bit if we just refer to the university. As long as they don't ask _which_ university, we're fine. They'll just assume we go to the one you do." 'Maiko' grinned.

"We could just _say_ you live in Minato," Nabiki said. 'Rika' frowned.

"I'd prefer not to. It's one more clue we don't want to give out. Saying we visit Minato is fine, lots of people do. Or saying you have as well shouldn't cause a problem. We simply don't want to associate ourselves with Minato too closely, just in case." Her sister nodded thoughtfully.

"I understand. I've steered clear of the subject whenever anyone asked by doing much the same. So far no one has dug any deeper. I don't want to outright lie if I can help it, but bending the truth isn't a problem." 'Maiko' laughed, looking at her with amusement.

"I seem to remember that was your entire operating method, you never lied but you were very good at letting people lead themselves down the wrong path." Smirking, the middle Tendo nodded with satisfaction.

"It's much better to have the mark, I mean, '_client_', persuade themselves rather than to have you try to persuade them. More difficult to pull off but a lot more convincing." She glanced at them, her sister was frowning very slightly while the other woman looked amused. "Obviously, I don't do that sort of thing any more."

"Of course not." 'Maiko' looked at her with a serious expression, to be met with a similar one. It held for about five seconds, then they both burst out laughing.

"OK. We avoid the subject. I think we're all sufficiently practised to do that," Nabiki said after a moment. The others nodded.

They arrived at the Dojo on schedule, having looked around the old neighbourhood, re-familiarising themselves with it. Neither had been to Nerima at all for a considerable time. It brought back a lot of memories both good and bad. Stopping in the street outside the Tendo residence, 'Maiko' and 'Rika' both looked at it for a long moment, then exchanged glances and a small sigh each. Nabiki watched silently. "It's been a long time, dear." 'Maiko' studied her wife carefully. The other woman looked very sad for a moment, then obviously and deliberately put a smile on her face, looking at her currently female husband.

"Yes, it has. It's a pity it's still not possible to be open about it. Oh well."

"Are you going to be OK?" Nabiki asked with concern. Her sister nodded after a short pause.

"I am." They walked towards the gate, Nabiki opening it and waving them through. Both of them walked in, feeling very strange to be once again standing in the courtyard of the Tendo house where one of them had spent years and the other her whole life, after so long away. They looked at each other for a second, the same thought going through their minds, before deliberately immersing themselves in the personae they were wearing. Opening the front door Nabiki entered first, removing her shoes just inside. The two women with her did the same. Hearing the door close Nodoka came out of the kitchen.

"Hello Auntie," Nabiki said. "This is Maiko, and Rika, my friends. Guys, this is Nodoka Saotome." They nodded politely.

"Hello, Mrs Saotome," Rika said, holding out her hand. Nodoka shook it with a smile.

"Nodoka, please. It's very nice to meet you, Nabiki has said quite a lot about both of you." She shook 'Maiko's' hand as well. The disguised Ranma had a very weird couple of seconds shaking the hand of her own mother while being introduced as a stranger. Nabiki covertly caught her eye and she smiled very slightly with the tiniest of shrugs. Leading them to the living room Nodoka said over her shoulder, "I understand you two are both medical students?" 'Maiko' nodded with a smile.

"Yes, that's correct. We've known Nabiki since before then, but for the last few years we've both been learning medicine. Rika is getting a medical degree, I'm working on sports medicine and biomechanics." The older woman bustled around the room for a moment, doing a little last-minute tidying up, before being satisfied.

"Please sit down. Would you like some tea? Or coffee?"

"Coffee would be very nice, please," 'Rika' replied with a pleased look, sitting next to her companion. Nabiki sat down across the table from them. Nodoka looked enquiringly at her and she nodded.

"Coffee, please, Auntie. Do you want me to help?"

"No, stay here with your friends. I have the kettle on, it won't take long." She vanished into the kitchen, returning in a couple of minutes with a tray full of cups and a coffee-pot. Pouring them each a cup she sat down. "So, tell me about yourselves." The two women exchanged glances for a moment, before Rika indicated Maiko should speak.

"Um, we live near the university. We share an apartment. Nabiki's stayed over a few times since we have a spare room." Nodoka nodded, pouring herself a cup as well. Nabiki helped herself to some sugar.

"I understand you are in a relationship?" she said, half asking, half stating. Nabiki nearly choked on her coffee.

"_Auntie_!" Nodoka looked slightly embarrassed while Rika laughed.

"Yes, that's true. Don't worry, Nabiki, we're not offended." The middle sister wiped coffee from the end of her nose, staring at Nodoka with some irritation. The older woman looked more embarrassed, while 'Rika' simply smiled gently. 'Maiko' was openly grinning.

"We love each other very much, and don't care who knows or what they think." Reaching out she held her wife's hand. "We consider ourselves to be married." The auburn-haired woman sighed, watching them.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that, but I've never met a pair of..." 'Maiko' laughed.

"Lesbians? I suppose I am, I certainly like women. Well, specifically one woman." Nabiki listened with inner hilarity. It was definitely true that Ranma liked women, but whether he still qualified as a lesbian when male was a very interesting point. She resolved to ask him the next time the opportunity came up. Nodoka blushed at the openness of the response.

"I'm sorry," she repeated. "My upbringing was very conservative and traditional. This sort of thing wasn't something my own mother would ever have mentioned, or probably even been aware of. It's taken some time for me to get over that." 'Rika' looked understanding.

"We all have parental issues to one degree or another. We don't mind, you're just curious. That's understandable." The elder woman seemed relieved that they weren't offended, she was well aware that it had been a significant breach of etiquette to even mention it, but her mouth had run away before her mind could stop it. Bowing slightly from a seated position she apologised once more. 'Maiko' waved her hand airily.

"Please, forget it."

They talked about university life and gave some information on the background stories of their disguises for twenty minutes or so, before Nodoka looked at her watch. "I have to finish preparing lunch. It will be about a quarter of an hour. Nabiki, why don't you show your friends around the house and where their room is? Please excuse me." She smiled at the two women, stood, then disappeared into the kitchen. The three females left in the living room looked at each other then silently giggled furiously for a moment, before Nabiki motioned to the door.

Once outside the room 'Maiko' said quietly, "OK, we're lightly shielded. No one will notice what we say if we keep the noise down." The middle sister promptly started giggling again.

"God, I thought I was going to explode several times in there. How the hell did you keep a straight face? Your mother talking about the problems she has had to face because of _her_ mother was _so_ funny." 'Maiko' grinned.

"I know. I doubt she'll ever know the irony involved." 'Rika' looked at her and laughed.

"Asking us about our '_lesbian_' relationship was very amusing as well. Especially the way she did it, she got so embarrassed when she'd realised what she'd said."

"To give her credit where it's due, she is trying to understand," Nabiki commented, turning and heading upstairs. They both followed. "She's changed a lot in the last year or so, for the better. Still a bit nuts but I don't think nearly as bad as before you left. She's come to realise some of what she was responsible for, in causing you so many problems with her impossible demands." She snickered. "I haven't heard her talk about '_a man among men_' for a long time." She looked over her shoulder at Nodoka's currently female son and grinned. "Although I suspect that your current state would cause her some problems if she knew." 'Maiko' grinned back.

"Probably." They arrived outside Kasumi's old room, where Nabiki stopped and looked at the little yellow wooden duck that was still hanging there. 'Rika' also stared at it, reaching out with one finger to gently touch it with a tear in her eye. Her husband put her arm around her shoulders. "You OK?"

"Yes, I will be. It brings back a lot of memories." Standing straight she pushed on the door. It swung open to reveal a room both familiar and unfamiliar. None of her old possessions were in evidence, mostly because the bulk of them were in their apartment, and the room had been repainted. But the bed was still the same, as were the curtains. She walked inside and looked around while 'Maiko' and Nabiki watched from the door. After a moment she smiled. "This feels very strange."

"Home at last?" Nabiki asked. She considered that for a few seconds then shook her head.

"Not quite. This isn't my home any more. But it's like an old familiar blanket, one you haven't seen for years, which you found while unpacking a cupboard. The same smell you remember from years ago, if that makes any sense." Nabiki nodded slowly.

"I think I understand."

"I spent so many years in this room." She walked over to the window and peered out, then sat on the bed. "In this bed. It feels... welcoming." Swivelling around she lay down for a moment, smiling to herself. 'Maiko' watched her fondly.

"Do you want to use this room?" Nabiki asked. "It's used as a guest room now, on the rare occasions we have guests, but if it's too much we could arrange something else. Happosai's old room, for example. Father usually sleeps there now but I can persuade him to move in here for a night." Sitting up 'Rika' swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She shook her head.

"No, thank you Nabiki. This will be fine. The bed is a good size and it will be nice to spend a night here after all this time." Her sister nodded.

"You'd better leave your bags here then, to make it look normal." They both pulled an overnight bag out of a ki pocket. "Hmm. I hope Auntie didn't notice you weren't carrying those when you came in." Leaving the bedroom they headed outside. Walking around the garden 'Maiko' stopped in front of the pond.

"Hello, old friend," she said with a wry grin. The pond said nothing. Nabiki laughed.

"Missing your morning swim?"

"No, not really." She grinned. "I like swimming a lot, but I prefer it to be on my own terms." They resumed walking, 'Rika' inspecting the garden carefully to see how it had been kept up in her absence, nodding approvingly. Nabiki noticed.

"Nodoka does quite a lot of gardening. She's kept everything pretty nice." Coming around the house they walked towards the Dojo, from which some familiar noises could be heard. Looking inside they found Akane going through another kata, fairly fast but still only at a fraction of the speed they performed the same one at even when they were just doing it for relaxation. 'Maiko' allowed the gentle cloak to slowly fade away. At a certain point Akane suddenly realised they were there, stopping and turning around.

"Hi, sis," she said, walking over while wiping the sweat from her forehead with a towel that was around her neck. She studied the two women with her sister curiously. They were looking at her with a slightly odd intensity, she noticed, but put it down to the martial arts she had been practising. Holding out her hand, she said, "Hi. I'm Akane Tendo." The shorter of the two women, who had her lustrous brown hair in a braid that reached to the small of her back and was wearing a red bow at the end of it, hesitated for a moment then shook it.

"Maiko Nakahara. Pleased to meet you." Her grip was firm and sure. The other woman, taller and blonde, also shook her hand.

"Rika Nygaard. Also pleased to meet you." She smiled in a gentle manner that reminded her faintly of her mother. Looking back at Maiko she inspected the hairstyle for a moment. It looked slightly familiar but she couldn't place why.

"I like your hair," she commented politely. The other woman smiled.

"Thank you. It took ages to grow it this long. Braiding it is a pain but I like the look." She glanced around the inside of the Dojo. "This is very impressive." Akane smiled.

"It's the family Dojo. I practice here every day, and my father and his friend are the instructors. We have our own style, Anything Goes Martial Arts, which we teach here." She looked at the two women. "Do you do any martial arts?" They exchanged glances.

"Well, we both practice some tai chi, and I know some akido. Also we're learning about pressure points and things like that in our medical studies. They're used in martial arts, aren't they?" She sounded a bit unsure. Akane nodded encouragingly.

"Yes, that's right. Some forms of the Art make very extensive use of pressure points. I know a couple of real experts in the field." Maiko seemed impressed.

"How long have you been learning martial arts?" she asked. Akane puffed up a little.

"Since I was a child. Not many people around here are better than me." Behind Maiko she saw her sister roll her eyes a little and blushed slightly. "But I still have a lot to learn," she added hastily.

"It must take a lot of time and practice to become skilled at it," Rika said, staring at the shrine to their mother high on the wall of the Dojo for a moment before looking back to Akane. The blue-haired young woman nodded.

"It does. Not many people stick to it and become real masters." Nabiki seemed to be having some trouble keeping a straight face. Akane glared at her sister when the other two women were looking away, making her shrug silently with a smile.

"Fascinating." Rika smiled at her. Hearing a faint call from the direction of the house, Nabiki looked to see Nodoka waving to her. She waved back.

"Lunch is ready. Let's go inside. Akane, are you going to join us?" The youngest Tendo sister nodded, tossing the towel towards a bench just inside the door. It missed.

"Yes, I'll just go and have a very quick shower." She headed for the house. The three other women followed more slowly, 'Maiko' gently cloaking them again so they could take without anyone noticed.

"Still capable of being a little full of herself, isn't she?" the smaller woman asked. Nabiki grinned.

"Definitely. Although I seem to remember a certain martial artist who was similarly boastful." 'Maiko' laughed.

"The difference is that I actually _was_ that good." The two sisters shared a smile.

"Yes, dear," 'Rika' said quietly. Nabiki giggled. 'Maiko' looked momentarily irritated then did the same.

"It's true. But I'll admit that was a bit boastful." Entering the house they headed for the living room, finding Nodoka laying the table.

"Please, let me help you with that," 'Rika' said.

"No, you're guests. This will only take a moment," Nodoka replied good-naturedly. The blonde sat down with a smile, followed by her husband and her sister. "Is Akane coming?" the older woman asked.

"Yes, she's just washing up."

"Good." As soon as the table was ready Ranma's mother vanished into the kitchen once more, returning quickly with the first plates of food. Nabiki got up to help despite her protestations. Minutes later everything was ready, just in time for Akane to come in. Very soon they were all eating and talking. Half-way through the meal Nodoka looked as if she'd remembered something. "Akane, a package came for you this morning while you were out." Standing, she rummaged around on the bookshelf next to the door until she retrieved a padded envelope, which she gave to the youngest Tendo before sitting down again. Akane read the label curiously.

"Ah. It's from a friend of mine who lives near Minato. Her sister works there, she's always telling me things about the demons and magical girls in the ward." She laughed. "The way she tells it you can hardly walk down the road without tripping over a magical girl fighting a demon, or the other way around." 'Rika' glanced at 'Maiko' and her sister as her other sister ripped the end off the envelope, emptying the contents onto the table next to her plate. A DVD in an unmarked case fell out along with a letter which she read curiously, smiling with interest after the first page. "Oh, wonderful. This should be amazing."

"What is it, dear?" Nodoka asked with curiosity in her voice.

"You remember those news reports we saw a few months ago? The ones with the magical girls in Minato who were shouting at the other ones after they caused all the damage when they killed a couple of demons?" Nodoka thought for a moment then nodded.

"Oh, yes. The little shouty one and the tall quiet one." Akane smiled.

"That's them. The small one is called Yori and the other one is Chou. They have a real reputation as seriously dangerous even by magical girl standards." Nabiki hardly dared look at either of her guests for fear of losing it completely, she was having a hard enough time keeping a straight face as it was. She could hear intermittent faint snorting noises coming from 'Maiko' while out of the corner of her eye 'Rika' was obviously biting the inside of her cheek in an attempt to keep a serious demeanour. Neither Akane or Nodoka noticed.

"They're very private people, oddly. Most of the magical girls seem to like showing off." Nodoka nodded wisely.

"I remember seeing the reports. So many of those girls wear very inappropriate clothing, but those two were dressed very nicely. But I'm still not sure about, 'Yori', was it?" Akane nodded. "I'm not sure about that bright blue highlight in her hair. It's a bit bold." Three pairs of eyes looked at her, then at the blue hair of the girl still reading the letter, then at each other. Three very slight shrugs came and went unnoticed.

"No one seems to know very much about them, or at least, no one is talking. After those reports I tried to find out more, but apparently people inside the area they're active in don't talk to people outside it a lot. It's very strange. Anyway, they occasionally put on demos by request for people of their magical and martial skills, which are supposed to be incredible. Recently they did one to music which I've heard was one of the most amazing things anyone ever saw. It got videoed but copies are weirdly difficult to track down." She held up the DVD. "Kaede's sister managed to get hold of a copy. This is a duplicate of it. Kaede says it's absolutely beautiful." She finished reading the letter while 'Rika' and 'Maiko' looked at each other with amused expressions.

"You're interested in magical girls, then, Akane?" 'Rika' asked. Akane nodded.

"Oh, yes, very much." She blushed a little. "When I was a small child I wanted so much to be one. I think that might be why I stuck at martial arts all this time." The blue haired girl chuckled a little sadly. "I know it's silly, it's not like being good at martial arts makes you a magical girl." Nabiki suddenly choked as a bit of fish went down the wrong pipe, causing Nodoka to reach out and thump her on the back.

"Thanks," she croaked, reaching for her glass of water.

Looking annoyed at the interruption Akane stared at her sister completely missing the look of enormous enjoyment that briefly flashed between the two guests before their faces smoothed out into ones of polite interest. Nodoka also missed it as she was looking at Nabiki with some concern. The middle sister indicated she was all right. "We should watch it," Akane said.

"After lunch." Nodoka looked at her firmly, causing her to wilt a little.

"Yes, Auntie." They finished eating, 'Rika' and 'Maiko' both complimenting Nodoka on the food.

"Thank you," she replied, pleased and smiling.

"Would you like us to help with the washing up?" 'Rika' asked. "We would be glad to."

"No, that's fine. We got a dishwasher last week, finally. It only takes a couple of minutes to load it up." Nabiki helped the elder Saotome to fill the machine, then once it was running they came back into the living room. "All right, Akane, let's watch this DVD of yours." With a smile Akane put the disk into the player and turned on the television. A few moments later they sat back to watch, interested for several different reasons. Nabiki grinned at her elder sister and her sister-in-law when the other two weren't looking, receiving a mischievous look from 'Maiko' in return. Pressing play on the remote control Akane sat forward on her seat to watch, clasping her hands eagerly in her lap, as excited as a child watching a movie.

The video was a little shaky at first but steadied as the unknown camera operator found a vantage point to rest the device on. It was clearly a very expensive camera in use as the picture was near-professional quality. It started just after 'Yori' and 'Chou' had begun the first sparring match. 'Rika' nudged her husband as she spotted Sergeant Harada and the two North American police officers in the crowd. 'Maiko' nodded absently, watching their performance with a critical eye. "Good grief", Nodoka muttered as she watched the sheer speed of the sparring match, wincing at the noises which the recorder had picked up with startling clarity. The blows and movements were just a blur on the screen, far faster than the shutter speed of the camera could cope with. Akane watched wide-eyed with a large smile on her face.

When the energy swords came out she gasped in amazement while Nodoka simply gaped. They watched the light-sabre fencing match with awe, even Nabiki staring incredulously. It was noticeably faster than the one she'd witnessed at their apartment some time ago. Her sister had clearly been practising a lot. Looking at her for a moment she raised her eyebrows, getting a smug smile back. Shaking her head slightly with a small grin she went back to watching the video.

Eventually it got to the point where the katas and the band converged. They all fell silent as the spectacle went on, with small gasps coming from Akane and Nodoka when the glowing trails of light appeared. Once it was over the room was as quiet as the park had been that day. Eventually Akane pressed the power button on the remote, making the TV shut down with a faint click.

"My god," Nodoka said quietly. Akane had tears in her eyes. Nabiki looked at her, then glanced at her older sister, who was watching the younger one with concern.

"Are you all right, Akane?" Nabiki asked. The other woman nodded.

"Yes," she said quietly, after a long pause. "That was... That was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen." She fell silent again. "I wish I could see something like that in person. Those two women are..." She shook her head, unable to find the words.

"Even without the light show, that was the most incredible demonstration of martial arts I've ever even heard of," Nodoka said slowly. "I know how good some of the people around here are, but even I can see how much better those girls are. How could they possibly have learned so much, so young? They looked like they weren't even twenty yet." Akane looked over her shoulder.

"Magical girls are, well, magic. Perhaps that has something to do with it." Nabiki shook her head.

"I don't think so. It looks to me like that was the result of an inhuman amount of skill and practice. The magic just adds to it." She glanced at 'Maiko', who shrugged very slightly. Akane looked at her and nodded slowly.

"It makes me feel like I've wasted my life, in one way. There's no way I'll ever be anywhere even close to that good." After a moment, she added, "But at the same time, I also know that no one I know will ever be that good either. They're as far beyond everyone I know as the rest of the martial artists in Nerima are past me. More." She shook her head. "Even... him." 'Rika' and 'Maiko' looked at each other with a small amount of guilt mixed with some amusement.

"Your father will find that DVD interesting," Nodoka said after another silence. Akane nodded absently, still staring at the blank screen of the TV. "So will my husband." She laughed a little. "It will show them that there is a _lot_ of room for improvement." With a small shiver across her entire body Akane came back from wherever she'd gone.

"Kaede was right. That was a genuine work of art. Those two could perform that anywhere in the world and get standing ovations." She smiled, going over to the player and ejecting the disk, putting it carefully back into it's case. "I'll have to show this to Shampoo. I think she'd like it as well." She looked at 'Rika' and 'Maiko'. "Shampoo is a friend of mine from China, she comes from a tribe of warrior women and is a very good martial artist," she explained. 'Maiko' nodded.

"Yes, we met Xian Pu earlier, Nabiki introduced us." Akane looked somewhat startled at the use of the Amazon's correct Chinese name, spoken with the correct accent, but accepted it.

"Do you speak Mandarin?"

"A little bit. Not very well yet, we're both still learning." The woman studied Akane. "What do you do, aside from the martial arts? Are you going to university, or do you have a job?" Akane sat down again having put the DVD on the bookcase.

"No, I don't go to university, not yet. I would like to one day, but there are some... problems..." Appearing slightly upset for a moment she quickly cheered up. "I'm working in a jewellery ship in Furinkan, I've been there for a while now. The owner is a nice man, he pays well and he knows a lot about his business. I don't know if I want to work there forever but for the time being it's OK, and sometimes fun. You meet some interesting people." She laughed. "It's the nearest I suppose I'll come to being a magical girl, I've stopped three robberies so far. I had to be quite harsh with the last two guys that tried to steal things, they had a knife they thought would impress us." Nodoka looked at her in shock.

"You didn't mention that, Akane. When did this happen?" The youngest sister smiled, shrugging a little.

"Three days ago. It wasn't anything special. Two young guys came in, some sort of gang members I guess, waved a knife in my face, then told me to give them all the cash and some diamond rings. I said no. They got pushy, I pushed back, they left in an ambulance. Mr Ito was very pleased and gave me a bonus. The police seemed quite happy as well, apparently those guys had robbed a couple of other shops recently and got away with it." Nabiki listened with some amusement, she'd heard some of the details but not all of it. 'Maiko' looked at 'Rika' with raised eyebrows and a secretive smile, then back at Akane.

"My, that sounds quite dangerous. Weren't you frightened?" She shook her head.

"Not really. I've had some very strange things happen to me over the years. Two punks with a knife doesn't even make the top ten most worrying things this month." Smiling, she added, "It actually cheered me up, I was feeling bored. For some reason hitting something always makes me feel better." Nabiki sighed.

"That's sort of the problem, isn't it." The blue-haired girl had the grace to look abashed. Nodoka watched her with concern.

"Sorry, Nabiki. But you know what I mean, it was something to do. I'm sort of bored a lot of the time, it used to be much more exciting around here." Her sister looked unimpressed.

"Exciting is an odd way to put it. Extremely dangerous and expensive, not to mention hard on property values, would be more accurate." Nodoka glanced at the two visitors who were listening with interest.

"Nerima has something of a reputation for strange martial artists and odd occurrences. About four years ago things started to calm down a little but it's still prone to weirdness." 'Rika' smiled.

"Yes, we've heard about some of the things that go around here. It sounds very interesting." The older woman sighed a little.

"It can be very annoying. You wouldn't believe some of the things that have happened. It's almost enough to make one thing of moving to Minato because it would be more sensible. And from what I've heard that place is also very weird." 'Rika' agreed.

"It _is_ an odd place."

"You've been there?" Akane asked with interest.

'Rika' smiled at her. "We've both visited a number of places in Minato on many occasions." Nodoka raised her eyebrows.

"Is it as mad as it sounds on the news? I'm almost afraid to go anywhere near the place." The blonde grinned.

"I don't consider it mad, personally, but it's... unusual. You see some quite strange things there, that's true." 'Maiko' snorted slightly, amused.

"You can say that again."

"Aren't you worried about being mixed up in a demon attack?" Nodoka asked with concern. "They seem to happen quite a lot, especially recently." Smiling the blonde woman shook her head.

"No, not really. That sort of thing does happen but there are quite a few people who know how to deal with it." Akane was listening intently.

"You mean magical girls. Have you met any?" 'Maiko' and 'Rika' shared a glance.

"We've bumped into a few. They're not uncommon. Most of them seem like nice people, although there are a few that seem to be a bit, um, over-enthusiastic, would be a good way of putting it." 'Rika' smiled. "I've heard that those two you were talking about, the ones from the video, are pretty good at keeping the others in line." Akane was nodding, very interested.

"I wish I could meet them, or even find out more about them. Where do they live? What do they do? Most magical girls have a secret identity of some sort. I wonder what theirs is?" Nabiki smiled at the rapid-fire questions.

"Surely the whole point of a secret identity is that it's a secret? I don't think you'll find anyone who will just tell you who they are." Her sister nodded after thinking about if for a moment.

"OK, yes, you're right." She stopped and stared at 'Maiko' for a moment, suddenly realising why her hairstyle looked familiar. "Hey, your hair is just like Yori's." 'Maiko' grinned.

"It's quite a popular hairstyle at the university. Several girls there are fans of magical girls like you are and started wearing their hair like this. Mine was long enough to do it right." She pulled her braid over her shoulder and showed it to Akane. "I even use a bow. But mine is usually red." Flipping it back over her shoulder she laughed. "One time someone even said I might _be_ this Yori person since I had the same hairstyle and was about the right height. It took a while to convince them I was just a medical student." Nabiki smiled, while Akane looked narrowly at the young woman before laughing.

"That must have been embarrassing. But I think a martial artist wouldn't have thought that. We can usually recognise each other just by the way someone walks and holds themselves. You can see in that video how skilled and practised Yori and Chou are. No offence, but you don't move like a fighter." 'Maiko' giggled while 'Rika' exchanged a privately amused look with her sister. Nabiki was doing everything she could not to collapse in laughter.

"No offence taken. Like I said, I'm a medical student."

Akane jumped to her feet. "I'm going to go and show Shampoo that DVD. I'll see you later, Auntie, Nabiki. It was very nice to meet you both." She smiled at the two visitors. "I guess I'll see you again later as well?" 'Rika' nodded.

"Yes, we're staying here overnight, and possibly tomorrow night as well." With a wave to the room in general the youngest Tendo grabbed the DVD and left, looking excited. 'Rika' laughed slightly. "She seems in a good mood." Nodoka glanced at her with a pleased smile.

"Yes, she does. I'm glad, she's been quite down a lot of the time recently. That video from her friend seems to have cheered her up a lot." The older woman turned to the two guests. "I'm afraid that Akane has some problems." She suddenly stopped, hesitant about saying anything else. Nabiki smiled.

"It's all right, Auntie, I've told them about Akane. They know everything that's happened." Nodoka raised an eyebrow. "They're very good friends, I trust them completely."

"All right." She nodded, satisfied. 'Rika' looked back at her.

"How has Akane been recently? We heard about her having something of a downturn some weeks ago, but it's been a few weeks since we last saw Nabiki." The auburn-haired woman sighed a little.

"It's difficult to say. She has good days and bad days. Her temper has been worse, true, but it's also been better. I'd say she's made up some ground recently but she's still emotionally rather volatile." Shaking her head she looked sad. "The poor girl. I knew her mother well many years ago, she'd have been very upset about how things worked out for Akane." She glanced at 'Rika'. "Has Nabiki told you about what happened to her older sister and my son?" The blonde looked momentarily at her companion who stared impassively back, before nodding.

"Yes, she told us something about that night. It sounds both dramatic and very sad."

"It was terrible. I have never been so frightened in my entire life as when Akane snapped and nearly killed Kasumi, and then when what happened afterwards happened." She looked at the two young women. "Ah, has Nabiki explained about my son? His... curse?"

"Yes. It's a very odd sounding thing, it must have been difficult for him," 'Rika' said sympathetically. Nodoka sighed.

"It was made much more difficult by the reactions of everyone around him. Kasumi was, looking back on it with the wisdom granted by hindsight, the only person who didn't let it change how she treated him. That young lady was one in a million. Mature far beyond her years, the kindest soul I have ever known. But she was trapped here, I know that now. When Akane had her moment of temporary madness, in a strange manner she freed Kasumi, freed both of them. When Ranma stood up out of the wreckage he'd," she corrected herself with a shake of her head, "SHE'D been buried under, for three days, three days during which we didn't even think to check, it was like..." She stopped for a moment. "Like nothing I have never known. The look in her eyes was terrible. Disappointment, betrayal, pain, anger. If you'd told me that we were all going to die right there and then I would have believed you utterly. When she finally walked out the gate taking Kasumi with her, though, even after all that had happened, I thought that they'd both come back sooner or later. But I was wrong. Four years later and we have never heard another word about them." She had tears in her eyes. After a few seconds of silence she sniffed a bit and wiped them.

"Akane got much worse after that. She was never a very stable girl in some ways, she always tended to be very stubborn and to overreact to any slight from a young age from what her father and sisters told me, but after that night she was prone to the most appalling outbursts of anger and violence. It was only recently that Nabiki managed to persuade her to seek help but it has been a very rocky road since then. She has certainly improved, not to mention the fact that she finally admitted that she had a problem in the first place. To give her credit she does truly wish to become better. But it hasn't been easy for her. The whole thing is very much two steps forward one step back, except sometimes it's more a giant leap back. I wish I knew why." Looking at 'Rika' she smiled in a slightly surprised manner.

"I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this. You are very good listeners. I think you'll make good doctors, both of you." The two young women smiled back.

"Thank you," 'Rika' said.

"I've told Rika and Maiko about most of what's happened with Akane's therapy," Nabiki said. "Maiko has been doing some research as a favour to me into possible causes and treatments for uncontrolled anger like Akane has and has a few leads. I need to look into it myself, there may be other doctors we can find who could help, based on what she had found, but it will take some time." Nodoka looked interested and pleased.

"That would be wonderful. Akane and Nabiki mean a lot to me. If you can find anything that can help, I would be very grateful." 'Maiko' nodded.

"We can't promise anything but we're happy to help. Nabiki is a very close friend and we know what family means to her." After a moment's pause, Nabiki stood.

"OK, thank you for lunch, Auntie. I'm going to show them around some more. We'll be back later." 'Maiko' and 'Rika' also stood and all three left the house. Nodoka sat, occupied with her own thoughts, for some time.


	24. Chapter 23

Cologne followed the sound of electronic music up to her great granddaughter's room, curious as to what had the young woman and someone else, Akane Tendo by the sound of it, so excited. They were talking quickly about something, gasping with surprise every now and then, and then laughing with delighted amazement. She was a little surprised how close they'd become in the last couple of months having been rivals for so long, but since the Tendo girl had been in therapy, despite some setbacks, she'd become in many ways a much nicer person to be around. The removal of Ranma from the picture, apparently permanently, had made a considerable change to both young women. Cologne still hoped to one day track the martial artist down and retrieve him for her granddaughter but in the privacy of her own head admitted that it seemed extremely unlikely this would ever happen. Wherever he'd gone, however he'd hidden himself, it was with greater skill than she could bring to bear. "Bloody Happosai," she mumbled. "I'm sure it's all his doing somehow. If I ever get my hands on that little bastard..."

In her more honest moments she also admitted to herself she was just the tiniest bit afraid of what she'd find if she did track him down. The person that had left the Tendo Dojo that night so long ago was _not_ the person she had thought he or she was. She still had nightmares about crystal sapphire eyes burning with a barely controlled fury, radiating so much ki energy she had suddenly had no trouble at all believing that this was the person who had defeated Saffron. When Ranma and Kasumi had left the Dojo it had been almost a relief. There was a moment she'd honestly thought that it would be the day she died. In her opinion Ryoga was extremely lucky to still be alive, the way the red-head had casually backhanded him all the way across the yard without showing the slightest sign of effort or interest had been horrifying. It had been clear she was right on the edge and vastly more dangerous than anyone had ever truly realised.

Reaching the door to Shampoo's room she peered in. The Amazon warrior and Akane were sitting on the floor watching the television Shampoo had in her room, apparently playing a DVD of some sort. Cologne shook her head. This modern technological world was stranger to her in some ways than magic was, not least because it changed so fast. That said she found it very useful. Walking further into the room unnoticed she got into a position to see what was being shown on the screen, then simply stared in amazement. "Holy crap," she muttered in Mandarin.

She recognised the two young women as the ones she had seen in a news report on the television a while ago from that strange ward of Minato. The shorter girl was the same one that Shampoo had told her about from a different report before that one. The young Amazon had been right, the girl had an amazing presence, she gave the impression of being an enormously experienced warrior and martial artist despite her young age. Watching her verbally flay an entire group of powerful magical girls who were clearly frightened of her had made her laugh like an idiot. She put some two hundred year old Amazon warriors to shame the way she took command. It had struck her that it would be amusing to get the girl to the Amazon village to see what would happen, but watching the DVD she suddenly thought better of it. Shampoo had been right, if this was what she and her colleague were capable of she wanted no part of it.

The two girls were currently sparring with what looked for all the world to be swords made from pure energy, either an amazingly powerful manifestation of ki, which seemed unlikely due to their age if nothing else, or simply magic. The skill behind the fight was incredible, matched only by the speed which was astounding. She watched some more, coming to the conclusion that they were not going anywhere near as fast as they could manage. Cologne nodded slowly, watching with interest and respect. They showed considerable intelligence in not showing their full capabilities. Akane was pointing out some of the more impressive parts of the fight having obviously seen it before. The sword fight finished, then the shorter one, 'Yori' Akane called her, started showing off her abilities at target shooting using some sort of beam weapon she seemed to be generating from her hand.

When the two young women started a set of extremely advanced katas which rapidly became synced to the music playing in the background, the band apparently cooperating with them, she sat in Shampoo's bed and just watched in admiration and awe. Both the other women fell silent, watching quietly as the two girls performed a graceful dance that was as beautiful as it was deadly. The pure skill involved was off the scale. She felt it might even dwarf that of Ranma, wondering for a moment what the result would have been if he'd gone up against either one of these women. It didn't seem likely she'd ever find out.

When the pair starting applying some special technique that produced slowly fading glowing traceries of energy from their hands she shook her head in respect. "Amazing. Truly amazing," she said quietly, once the performance came to an end. The applause that came from the crowd in the background was thoroughly deserved in her opinion. Shampoo turned to look at her not having noticed her enter the room.

"Hello, Grandmother. How much of that did you see?"

"From somewhere during the sword fight. Is there more of it?" Cologne asked curiously. Akane nodded.

"Yes, there's some sparring at the beginning. Would you like to see it?"

"Please." Akane pressed play again and restarted the video at the beginning. The elder watched with great interest. Once it reached the point she'd come in, she thanked them. "Where did you get this, Akane?"

"A friend of mine sent it to me. Her sister works in Minato somewhere, she managed to get a copy of it. Apparently this was videoed a month or so ago in a park, the two girls, Yori and Chou, were asked to put on a demonstration of their skills. What do you think?"

"I think that I wouldn't like to go up against either one of them, never mind both. The level of skill and power there is... astounding is the only word I can come up with. I wonder how they do the special techniques, is it ki or magic?" Cologne looked at her great granddaughter and her friend. They shared a glance.

"Magic, I think. They are magical girls after all." Akane smiled at the elder who looked amused.

"Yes, Akane, I understand the concept." She shook her head. "Most remarkable. Thank you. That was not only probably the most impressive demonstration of martial arts skill I have ever seen it was undoubtedly the most beautiful." Thinking it over she left the room again, while Shampoo and Akane discussed what they'd seen, ending up playing the video again half a dozen times to see if they could work out any of the moves.

* * *

"She misses you," Nabiki said a few minutes after they left the house, not going anywhere in particular, just wandering along looking around. 'Maiko' glanced at her.

"You mean my mother?"

"Yes." The martial artist sighed slightly, looking momentarily guilty, while her wife watched her with sympathy.

"I could see that. I'm sorry about it." Nabiki studied her for a few more steps.

"Do you think you can ever forgive her?"

"I forgave her a long time ago. That doesn't mean I trust her, not yet."

The middle Tendo sister nodded. "She's changed, a lot. The woman back there isn't the same one you remember from four years ago any more than you are the same person she remembers." 'Maiko' looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"But has she changed _enough? _Could she accept me now, not as she wants me to be but as I am?"

Nabiki opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. Eventually, she quietly replied, "I don't know." Her sister-in-law shrugged.

"That's the problem. We've built up a life we like with a lot of effort and sacrifice. It's not something either one of us wants to jeopardise by revealing who we are to the wrong people, or too soon. Maybe one day, but not today." 'Rika' smiled softly at her sister.

"She's right. Much as I would like to tell Akane who I am, that I'm all right and have a good life, I can't. I wish I could. Seeing her again makes me miss her and Father all the more, but it's too soon. If nothing else we need to get her mind sorted out first."Nabiki nodded slowly, sighing with an unhappy smile.

"I understand, and I guess I agree. I just think it's a shame." She fell silent for a while. "There is a time limit, though, I think. After seven years with no word from either of you they could declare you legally dead." 'Maiko' looked at her, then smiled a bit.

"We know. There are ways around that as well, if we need to." She looked ahead, recognising the street they were on. "Hey, is that ice cream place still open?" Nabiki snickered.

"Yes, it's still there and as good as ever. I assume you're in the mood for some?" The other woman grinned.

"You know me, I'm always in the mood for some ice cream. Come on, I'm buying." Five minutes later they were eating their cold treats with enjoyment.

Nabiki pushed her empty bowl away with a satisfied smile. "I do like their mint ice cream, it's fantastic." The other two nodded, still eating. Watching them with fondness, she suddenly grinned. "I thought I was going to burst at home when Akane produced that DVD then started talking about 'Yori' and 'Chou'. Her sister laughed.

"She seems to be a real fan. I hope the dolls please her." 'Maiko' snickered, finishing her own ice cream.

"If her reaction to the DVD was any guide she'll be hugely pleased." Looking at Nabiki, she added, "Any chance you could get us a copy of that disk? I'd like to have it at home, it's good as something to study and also I'm kind of impressed with the results. Whoever shot the footage was pretty good. I think Aiko and the girls might like to see it as well."

"I'll see if I can borrow it and copy it."

"Thanks." 'Maiko' turned to inspect the display of ice cream again, making Nabiki smile. 'Rika' looked at her husband with a tolerant look.

"Don't you think you've had enough?" The martial artist shook her head with a grin.

"I've never had enough. You know that. But I'll be good."

When they left the shop they had only gone a couple of hundred metres before Nabiki spotted someone coming towards them and groaned. "Crap. I don't want to deal with this." 'Maiko' and 'Rika' followed her gaze, then looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Tatewaki Kuno was walking towards them looking at the two women he didn't recognise with curiosity. He stopped a couple of metres away.

"Nabiki Tendo. Fancy meeting you here." He inspected them closely. "Two beautiful young women I have never encountered before. Why is this?" Striking a slight pose he announced grandly, "I am Tatewaki Kuno, scion of the Kuno family and Kendo expert extraordinary. May I ask you delicate flowers to favour me with your names?" 'Maiko' looked at 'Rika' with an amused expression, then turned back to Kuno. Looking him up and down, she then walked around him inspecting him closely. He followed her with his eyes curiously.

Turning to 'Rika' she asked in a haughty voice, "What do you think? Overly brash, I feel. Some decent muscular development, reasonably good looking, but there's something missing." She inspected him again with a cocked eyebrow. 'Rika' nodded.

"Yes, overall quite pleasing to the eye but..." She also walked around the young man who looked back with a confused expression. "No. No, this will never do. Nabiki dear, is this the best Nerima can offer?" Giggling inwardly Nabiki shook her head.

"No, there are some specimens that are more pleasing to the eye. This one, though, has the advantage of being from a wealthy family." 'Rika' snorted in a delicate fashion, waving her hand in a dismissive manner.

"Money is hardly the issue. It's not as if it matters to us. No, I think not." Turning to the dark-haired young man who was looking increasingly confused, she said, "Thank you for your time, my dear fellow. I'm afraid that neither of us is interested. Good day." She bowed very shallowly as did 'Maiko' then swept grandly past him. Nabiki smiled coldly at Kuno, shrugged, then followed the two other women. Kuno looked blank for several seconds before turning to watch them walk away.

"What just happened?" he asked the air, very puzzled. There was no answer.

When they were safely some distance away 'Maiko' shielded them a bit so they would remain unnoticed in case Kuno followed them. She started laughing, Nabiki joining her.

"That was brilliant. Sis, your Kodachi impression is getting steadily better. Did you see his expression? He had _no_ idea what to do." 'Rika' began giggling and couldn't stop.

"Silly Tatewaki. He's still a very strange person." 'Maiko' chuckled. Nabiki looked at her with an amused expression.

"Says one of the strangest people I know." As 'Maiko' laughed the middle sister looked around them. "We're quite close to Ucchan's. Fancy going for some okonomiyaki?" At their dubious expression she smiled. "Come on, it's not like they have any chance of recognising you, neither one is Cologne." 'Rika' looked at her husband, who nodded.

"Why not. I haven't had one of hers for four years and they're very good." A few minutes later they stopped outside the Okonomiyaki restaurant, looking at it with interest. "It's bigger."

"Yes. About six months ago the place next door shut down and she managed to negotiate a very good price for the lease on the building, then expanded into it. She's taken on a couple more waitresses as well. Business seems to be pretty good." Entering they walked up to the counter where the young chef was working, her long hair swaying as she moved from grill to grill. Looking up she spotted Nabiki and smiled.

"Hi, Nabiki. You haven't been here in weeks." Without being asked she started grilling Nabiki's favourite, then looked curiously at the other two women. "Who are your friends?"

"My friends. This is Maiko, and Rika. You remember I mentioned them a while back?" Ukyo nodded with interest.

"Oh, yes, the medical students. You'd met them again after losing contact for a while, I remember now. Hi, pleased to meet you, I'm Ukyo Kuonji." She held out her hand over the counter. 'Maiko' shook it while sitting on a stool.

"Hi. Maiko Nakahara. This is my partner Rika Nygaard." Ukyo looked at the blonde then shook her hand as well.

"What can I get you? First one is on the house for friends of Nabiki's" 'Rika' smiled.

"That's very generous of you. Thank you." She looked at the menu. "Can I have one with ham and mushrooms, please?"

"Certainly." Turning to the smaller woman the chef smiled again. "And you?"

"Um, squid, peppers, and onions, please. Oh, and some mushrooms as well." Ukyo nodded, quickly preparing the batter and adding the toppings. Sliding Nabiki's okonomiyaki onto a plate she pushed it over to the Tendo woman.

"Here you go. So, how do you like Furinkan?" She glanced at the other two while Nabiki began eating.

'Rika' smiled. "It's very interesting. We've met most of Nabiki's family, and a friend of hers, that Chinese girl Xian Pu. She seems nice." Ukyo laughed.

"She's a lot easier to deal with nowadays. Back when we were in school there were some, well, some issues. Over a boy." 'Maiko' nodded, eating her okonomiyaki with appreciation.

"We've heard about that. I believe you, Akane, and Xian Pu were all chasing the same one?" Ukyo sighed a little, preparing an order that one of her waitresses handed her.

"Yes. It didn't end well. I miss him though." She stared into space for a moment, coming back to reality as the sound of frying on the grill changed. "Whoops." Quickly flipping the finished product onto plates she signalled the waitress, who returned and took them. "So how long are you here for?"

"Just tonight and tomorrow, probably. We've got a break in our studies but we have to get back by Monday afternoon at the latest. This was very nice, thank you," 'Rika' replied, finishing her snack. Ukyo grinned.

"Thank _you. _Would you like another one?" The taller woman shook her head.

"No, thanks. We had quite a large lunch not that long ago. I will come in the next time we're around her though." Ukyo seemed pleased.

Turning to Nabiki, she asked with some concern, "How is Akane doing at the moment? I haven't seen her for a while." Nabiki sighed a little pushing her empty plate away.

"Not ideal. She had something of a setback a few weeks ago. She's improved quite a bit since then but she's still prone to depression and anger." Looking momentarily amused she smiled. "She got a DVD in the post today that seems to have cheered her up quite a bit. Some video of some magical girls in a park in Minato doing the most unbelievable sequence of martial arts you've ever seen. Did you know she was so into magical girls?" Ukyo laughed and nodded.

"Sure, she's mentioned it a few times. Bit of a fan-girl I think. She was all about that bunch of colour-coded schoolgirls in miniskirts a couple of years ago, but since then she seems to have decided they're not interesting enough. Last I heard she was trying to find out more information on a new pair, um, Yuki and Chou?" Nabiki grinned.

"Yori and Chou."

"Oh. Yes, that's right. She seems to be a little obsessed with them for some reason. They were on the news a few times, something about them dealing with various nasty demons in Minato somewhere then giving some other magical girls a hard time. I saw one of the reports, it was hysterical. The little one was laying into the other girls like something out of a military training movie. They were practically standing to attention." She snickered at the memory. Nabiki giggled.

"Yes, I heard about that. That one is Yori, the other one, Chou, is a lot quieter. She seems rather intimidating though from what I've heard." Out of the corner of her eye she saw her disguised sister exchange glances with 'Maiko' who smiled a little and shrugged.

"OK, right. Anyway, she's pretty keen on them right now. Was it them on the DVD?"

"Yes. It's fairly incredible." Ukyo seemed interested.

"I'd like to see that. I'll have to stop by when I get a moment. I'd like to see Akane again in any case."

"How's Konatsu?" Nabiki asked, putting her elbows on the counter. Ukyo smiled.

"Doing very well, actually. He's out getting some supplies at the moment, you just missed him." She looked like she was remembering something nice. Nabiki watched her face with amusement, glancing at the other two who were doing the same.

"So, is there going to be a permanent arrangement in the future?" she asked with a grin. Ukyo looked at her for a moment, then slowly nodded.

"I think so. Not quite yet, but perhaps sometime after Christmas."

"Congratulations, in advance." The middle Tendo sister laughed. "Finally one of the old crew being taken out of the pool permanently." Ukyo shrugged.

"I guess so. I suppose it's time now, after four years." Looking at her curiously Nabiki thought for a moment.

"So, if he turned up again now, what would you do?" she asked slowly. Ukyo sighed.

"Nothing. I gave up on that dream years back, I saw it for what it was. It would never have worked out anyway, I came to that conclusion a long time ago. Wherever he is, I hope he's happy. Kasumi too. I miss both of them, I'd like to see them again, especially Ranma, but mainly to say goodbye. I'm very happy with Konatsu, happier than I think either one of us would have been if I'd got my way back in school." She looked slightly melancholy. "It's a matter of shame to me that my actions helped drive him away. I wish I could apologise for that. I know how much he tried to balance all the various things pulling him this way and that, all for honour. The funny thing is that I now think the only one with true honour all that time was him." The chef fall silent as the others looked at each other. "Oh well. Too late now." She shrugged unhappily.

Nabiki smiled at her with affection. "Don't be sad, Ukyo. It'll all work out for you and Konatsu, I'm sure. Twenty years from now none of this will matter." Ukyo nodded briefly.

"You're probably right. It just kind of makes me a bit sad to think about it, you know?" Cheering up with a visible effort of will, she smiled brightly at the two visitors. "Please come back next time you're in Nerima." The other waitress handed her an order. "Excuse me, this is a big one." Nabiki nodded, as they all got up.

"Thanks, Ukyo. See you around. Give my best to Konatsu, will you?"

"Sure. Bye, Nabiki." They left the restaurant and headed back towards the Dojo, walking slowly.

"Poor Ukyo," 'Maiko' said after a while. "Another one I never wanted to hurt. That said, she was as much part of the problem as all the others were."

"Don't worry. In the end I think she came out of it better than almost any of them. She's smart as well as stubborn. When the situation changed she was forced to re-evaluate her life and worked out how mistaken she'd been. I don't know exactly how she sorted things out with her father but she did. They'll be fine."

Arriving back at the Dojo they entered, finding Nodoka in the garden looking at the pond. She glanced up as she heard them come out of the house. "The koi are looking a bit sluggish, even for this time of year," she said, smiling at them. "I think the last fight that ended up here may have disturbed the water balance. I'll have to get a water test kit and check it." She walked over to the group of three young women near the porch. "Did you have a nice time?"

"Yes, Auntie," Nabiki replied. "We wandered around for a while, saw the area, had some ice cream, then went to Ucchan's for some okonomiyaki." Nodoka laughed.

"Right after lunch? You must have been hungry. I'm sorry, I thought I'd made enough." 'Maiko' grinned at her.

"Don't worry, lunch was very nice. We were offered a free okonomiyaki by Miss Kuonji and it would have been rude to refuse. They're very good." The older woman nodded.

"They are indeed. So, what do you think of Furinkan?" 'Rika' laughed a little.

"It seems nice. There are some slightly strange people here though. We met one young man, Tatewaki, was it, Nabiki?" The middle sister nodded with a grin. "He seemed a little..." Nodoka started laughing.

"Oh, he is a little. One might even saw he was a lot. Very odd family the Kunos. The young man, underneath his peculiar demeanour and leaving his somewhat strange attitude to women apart, is actually quite a nice fellow. None too bright but I believe he mostly means well. That said he and my son didn't get along at all." Nabiki looked unconvinced.

"Auntie, he's an overbearing idiot. Don't forget what he did to Akane, or at least was responsible for starting." The auburn-haired woman sighed a little.

"I haven't forgotten. What he did was not at all good, but I maintain it was out of ignorance rather than maliciousness. I've had several very nice conversations with the boy, he can be quite charming." She shook her head. "The sister is another matter altogether, she's definitely not all there. I think she's actually quite smart but she's also very arrogant and pushy. Even so, she can also be rather pleasant to talk to on occasion." Nabiki looked appalled.

"_Kodachi? _Pleasant? She's completely nuts!"

"Well, I'll admit she can be difficult and very irritating, especially when she's teasing Akane. But she hasn't done that since you lectured her that time some months ago. In fact, I haven't seen much of her at all and the last time I did meet her she was surprisingly polite." Nodoka laughed slightly. "I think you unsettled her considerably. I have to say the expression on her face was extremely amusing. I don't think I've ever seen the young lady actually look confused before." Nabiki grinned at this.

"Oh, that was very funny and satisfying, I admit. You're right, she looked completely overwhelmed." She giggled. "Speaking of that, you should have seen how Rika and Maiko handled Tatewaki a while ago." Nodoka looked curious, so they took turns explaining. The Saotome woman laughed delightedly.

"Oh dear, he must have been very surprised. Well done, both of you, that sounds like it was very funny." 'Rika' laughed.

"It was. The poor young man had no idea what to do, we were able to make our escape while he was trying to figure it out." 'Maiko' was grinning.

"Nabiki has told us quite a lot about the Kuno family. They sound very unstable to me I have to say." Nodding, the older woman agreed.

"I'm afraid they are. The father is the worst, he's certifiable. If it wasn't for his financial and political influence he would probably be in some form of institution by now, possibly accompanied by his daughter. It's a pity, I think the children would have been quite nice with a different upbringing."

"We can't pick our parents, unfortunately," 'Maiko' said with a slight grin. Her wife kicked her in the ankle, just a little bit. Nabiki noticed although Nodoka didn't as she'd turned away to look over the garden. The middle sister hid a smile as the older woman looked back at them.

"So what are your plans for the rest of your time here?" 'Rika' looked thoughtful, glancing at her sister and husband.

"We have no definite plans. I think we may go out to see a movie, possibly, otherwise this is just a pleasant break from routine. It's nice to meet Nabiki's family and friends, we've been told quite a lot about most of them."

"All right, that sounds nice. I have to go out now but I'll be back by the early evening." Nodoka looked at Nabiki. "My husband and your father are due back around seven or eight, I believe. I should be back by then. They'll probably be, um, well-lubricated if you take my meaning." She sighed a little as Nabiki nodded. "If I'm not back, can you try to keep them from doing or saying anything particularly stupid? Either to Akane or your friends?"

"Yes, Auntie," Nabiki said with a small cold smile. "I can keep them under control, don't worry. If they try anything I'll set Maiko loose on them." At Nodoka's puzzled look she added, "Remember, I learned the technique that brought Kodachi to heel from her. It's almost a martial art and she is an expert." 'Maiko' shot the middle sister a warning look but masked it with a grin when Nodoka looked at her.

"I've been told I have a commanding presence when I'm annoyed," she explained lightly. "I think it's just that people don't expect a petite woman to shout quite so much, I'm nothing special otherwise. Blame my upbringing, it was a bit non-traditional." Nodoka smiled.

"That's quite common around here. OK, girls, I'm off now. I will see you later. Have fun." Re-entering the house she disappeared. The three left behind all looked at each other.

"Can't pick our parents." Nabiki snorted with humour. "Said to your mother of all people." The shorter woman snickered.

"Sorry, couldn't help it." 'Rika' sighed gently.

"Be nice, dear." Laughing, they went back into the house. The next few hours passed quietly. They looked around the place some more, recovering old memories of when they'd lived there, their conversations shielded just in case anyone came in. While they were the only ones there the disguised Kasumi went in to the Dojo to pay her respects at her mother's shrine, resuming her own appearance while the others stood guard. When she came back out a few minutes later, as 'Rika' once more, she was crying slightly. Her female husband held her until she recovered, while Nabiki leaned against her for comfort.

"Thank you," she said, wiping her eyes, as 'Maiko' released her. "I needed to do that, I've missed it for so long."

"I understand, sis." Walking around the garden the three of them talked for a while, before Akane came back, in a very good mood.

"Oh, hi, Nabiki." She grinned at her sister as she and her friends came inside. "Shampoo loves the video. Cologne saw it as well and I've never seen her so impressed." 'Maiko' and 'Rika' looked at each other for a moment. "We've been trying to work out how they do some of those techniques. Between us we counted at least twenty different styles they were using in the kata section as well, we only recognise about a third of them. Even Cologne had never seen more than half. It's like Anything Goes taken to the most incredible level." Nabiki waited for her sister to stop chattering, she hadn't seen her this excited for a long time.

"Can I borrow that disk, Akane? I'd like to watch it myself." Handing her sister the case, Akane nodded.

"Yes, sure. Don't lose it though, I want it back. Father and Genma will want to see it as well." She stopped for a moment, thinking. "I know. Shampoo and I should go to Minato and see if we can meet Yori and Chou." Slightly alarmed, Nabiki glanced at the two women listening quietly. They looked back, 'Maiko' shrugging a little.

"Ah, I don't think it would be quite that easy. It's not like they have an office or anything, they're magical girls. Presumably they turn up when a demon does and I doubt you want to be around for that." Akane waved her hands excitedly.

"No, no, Kaede says they often wander around just helping out, not like most of the others." She nodded to herself. "I should call Kaede and find out exactly where they are most." Smiling at the others she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and began dialling, going up the stairs. As she entered her room, just before the door closed, they heard her say, "Kaede? Hi, I got the DVD, tha..." The closing of the door to her bedroom cut her voice off. Downstairs there was silence for a moment.

"Hmm." 'Rika' looked at her husband. "This could be a problem." Nabiki sighed a little, but smiled as well.

"Figures the one thing that's made her happy in months is the one thing we really didn't need."

"It shouldn't be a problem," 'Maiko' said, a small grin on her face. "Better we get some warning. If we hadn't come all this would have happened anyway and she and Shampoo might have turned up unexpectedly. The odds of bumping into them is pretty low, they'll probably give up if we don't meet them, and we can feel both of them coming for some distance so we can avoid them if necessary." She chuckled. "On the other hand, perhaps we _should_ meet them just to get it over with." Nabiki got a thoughtful look.

"Or..." she thought some more, glancing up the stairs to make sure Akane was still in her room.

"Or what?" 'Rika' asked curiously, studying her sister.

"Well, if you did happen to meet Akane, maybe some reason might present itself for you to check her out. Then we wouldn't have to muck around with that ridiculously convoluted plan of yours." Both women exchanged glances, then slowly nodded. 'Rika' abruptly looked disappointed.

"I _like_ my convoluted plan."

"Fine, you can keep it as a backup, then." Smiling at her sister, Nabiki added, "But if you happen to get the chance to bypass it I think you should do so." 'Maiko' was thinking about it.

"It's not a bad idea. No offence, love, but the other plan _was_ a little overcomplicated and '_mission impossible_'." At her wife's pout, she smiled. "We can use it some other time."

"The question remains how do we come up with an excuse to scan Akane even if she does meet us?" 'Rika' asked. They all thought about it for a while. Finally 'Maiko' shrugged.

"Not sure. Let's just see what happens. If she doesn't turn up, we go with plan A."

All three of them went to Nabiki's room, where she turned on the computer and within twenty minutes had made two copies of the DVD, one for herself and one for 'Maiko'. Handing it to her she grinned. "I really do want to see it again, that performance was unbelievable. I told you you just needed to set it to music."

"It was a lot of fun," her sister said, remembering it with a faint smile. "We've done demonstrations for people before, but that time was something special." Giggling, she went on, "Poor Lieutenant Harrison looked like he'd seen a ghost. Inspector Deveraux wasn't much better."

The two fathers did turn up before Nodoka returned, staggering in through the door with wide grins, Genma holding a bottle of sake, while Soun was carrying some take out ramen boxes. Entering the living room where Nabiki and her two visitors were talking about university life with Akane, they stared owlishly around, then each flopped down into a seat. "Hello Father," Nabiki said dryly, rolling her eyes a little. "Did you and Uncle Genma have a nice time?" Soun smiled a little tipsily, managing after the third attempt to put the boxes he was holding on the table.

"Yes, Nabiki, it was a lot of fun. We nearly won the championship." Genma swigged from the bottle and thumped it down.

"We _would_ have won if everyone wasn't cheating." Nabiki exchanged a look of amusement with Akane.

"You mean, if everyone wasn't cheating better than you two, I imagine." They had the grace to look slightly shame-faced. The middle sister laughed while the other women smiled slightly. "These are my friends Rika and Maiko. Please be polite." Both fathers studied the two women for a moment then decided the food was more interesting. They were soon shovelling it in. Looking slightly disgusted, Nabiki asked, "Did you bring enough for everyone?" in a somewhat sarcastic tone. Soun nodded, his mouth full.

Swallowing, he pushed some boxes over to her. "Of course. We thought ahead." Shaking her head Nabiki investigated the contents, handing a box to each of the others. "At least you went to the good place. It's not as good as the Cat Cafe, but it's not bad." They juggled boxes for a moment until everyone had something they liked, then ate. Nodoka returned half an hour later and looked around, sighing.

"I suppose I don't need to make dinner, then. Pity, it was going to be very nice." Akane grinned at her.

"Don't worry, Auntie, there wasn't much for us. We could eat." She looked at her father who was half asleep, and Genma who was twice that. "I think _they're_ full though."

"Oh, joy. Right, Nabiki, would you help me in the kitchen?" 'Rika' smiled at her.

"Would you like me to help? I know my way around a kitchen quite well." Considering the offer for a moment, Nodoka nodded.

"That's very kind of you, dear. Yes, please, if you would. You girls, can you please clear all this up? And move _them_ if you can wake them up." Staring at the two men with irritation she shook her head, then went into the kitchen, followed by 'Rika'. Akane and Nabiki, helped by 'Maiko', quickly cleared up the room, then got rid of the two fathers. Akane had to bodily carry Genma up to his room as he was deeply asleep, or in a drunken stupor as Nabiki rather unkindly put it. She poked her father in the ribs unmercifully until he woke.

"Go to bed, Father." Mumbling, he struggled to his feet and staggered out. She watched him go with a smile and a sigh, then turned to the others. "I don't like to see him like that. It doesn't happen very often nowadays but it brings back unhappy memories," she commented to 'Maiko' while Akane nodded.

"At least they seemed in a good mood," her friend said. "That's something." Akane helped Nabiki set the table while 'Maiko' joined her wife helping Nodoka in the kitchen.

"You certainly _do_ know your way around a kitchen, dear," Nodoka commented, watching as 'Rika' deftly made a white sauce. The other woman smiled.

"Thank you. I'm not as good as my mother but I like cooking." 'Maiko' laughed.

"And I like eating, so it all works out." The elder woman watched as she prepared some vegetables, her eyebrows going up.

"You seem to know which end of a knife to hold as well," she said with a grin. The brunette with the long braid smiled.

"Rika has been teaching me for years. I'm not as good as she is and probably never will be but I think I've learned quite a bit." She looked up from her work. "Nabiki has told us some odd things about Akane's cooking skills," she commented in a low voice. Nodoka shuddered.

"I would debate whether her skills should be referred to as '_cooking_'. They're impressive I'll grant you, but I'm not entirely sure _what_ they are." 'Maiko' shot her a grin, while 'Rika' giggled.

"Surely it can't be that bad?"

The elder Saotome glanced at the blonde with a small sigh. "Trust me. Whatever you're thinking it's worse. Much, much worse." The meal was served half an hour later, all five women sitting around the table. "Very nice. Thank you, Rika." Nodoka looked impressed, tasting the food, while the other woman smiled happily.

"You're welcome."

Nodoka looked around at the four younger women. "Did you all have a nice day?" she asked. Akane nodded, slurping down her food with appreciation. When she finished her mouthful she started talking, nearly choking for a second. "Slowly, Akane." The blue haired woman blushed slightly, taking a drink to clear her throat.

"Shampoo and I watched that DVD about eight or nine times. We want to find out more about Yori and Chou, they're amazing. I called Kaede and found out where the video was made, it's an up-scale part of Minato near the bay. We're going to go there and see if we can meet them." Nodoka looked startled.

"Is that a good idea? How would you find them, even? I understand these magical girls tend to protect their real identities quite effectively."

"Kaede says they're often spotted walking around just keeping an eye on the area. They're not like most of the others, they don't just go after demons, apparently they have a very strong reputation as protectors of the community in general. They've saved lots of lives from things as mundane as falling off buildings or car accidents. People there really like them." She looked impressed, while Nodoka nodded approvingly.

"That's good. People so powerful helping the less powerful like that is a very honourable thing to do. The more I hear about these two the more impressed I am." Nabiki glanced at her two visitors. 'Rika' smiled privately at her over her cup while 'Maiko' winked.

"Still, there's no guarantee you'll just bump into them, presumably. You both have jobs as well, when are you going to have time to go?" Akane deflated slightly.

"Oh. Um. Perhaps during the evening? Or next weekend." She nodded to herself. "Yes. We can try during the evening this week, and if that doesn't work, on Sunday we both have the entire day available." Shaking her head slightly, Nabiki grinned at her enthusiastic sister.

"Well, good luck. I don't think you're going to simply find them walking down the street, but if you do see if you can get their autographs for me." 'Maiko' snickered and she looked severely at her. "Hey, they might be worth real money one day." This made the other woman start laughing. After a moment Nabiki joined in. 'Rika' simply watched them with a long-suffering expression.

After the meal Nabiki went up to her room, returning shortly with Akane's DVD. "Thanks, sis. Here you go." Akane took it with a smile and put it carefully beside the DVD player.

"I'll show it to Father in the morning." The table was soon cleared and the dishes washed, 'Maiko' helping Nodoka load the dishwasher. The older woman made a pot of tea and brought it back into the living room. 'Maiko' and 'Rika' were sitting next to each other holding hands with Akane surreptitiously studying them. Nodoka could see they were both obviously aware of the scrutiny, as could Nabiki, but didn't mind. Tea was poured and distributed. A few minutes later 'Rika' looked directly at Akane, who jumped a little.

"Do you have a question, Akane? Only I can't help but noticing you seem to be very interested in us." She smiled making it clear she wasn't offended. Akane went red and chewed her lip.

"Um." She chewed it some more while everyone waited patiently. "You're... involved? With each other, I mean?" she asked in an embarrassed tone of voice. 'Rika' smiled gently at her.

"Yes." Akane nodded absently still looking at them. "Do you have a problem with that?" she asked. Shaking her head the youngest Tendo woman kept looking.

"No, I guess not. It's just... well, I find it kind of... weird." 'Rika' raised an eyebrow and she hastily added, "Sorry, I don't mean it like that."

"How _do_ you mean it?" 'Maiko' asked her curiously. Once more she seemed slightly stuck.

"When I was younger I sort of got very angry about things like this. Things that were... perverted," she said by way of explanation. 'Rika' and 'Maiko' exchanged a glance.

"Perverted? I don't think we're perverted, do you, dear?" 'Rika' asked her partner with a smile. 'Maiko' shook her head, grinning a little.

"We're many things, but I'm fairly sure perverted isn't one of them. Nabiki? Are we perverted?" The middle sister laughed.

"Insane, yes. Annoying, yes. Perverted? I don't think so." Nodoka laughed, making them all look at her. She seemed slightly embarrassed and went quite again, motioning for them to continue. She was finding this quite interesting on several levels.

"But, two women together? That's not normal." Akane as aware she was digging herself in deeper but couldn't help it. If it wasn't for the fact that both of Nabiki's friends seemed so nice she'd never even have raised the subject, but now she had she couldn't let it lie for some reason. 'Maiko' giggled while 'Rika' looked amused.

"Normal is a matter of opinion. I know a significant number of same sex couples, so to me it's completely normal. It may not be _traditional_ I'll admit, but even there if you look at history it's been a large part of many cultures for thousands of years. It's not something you choose, it's who you are. Do you understand?" The youngest sister looked slightly confused but nodded slowly.

"I guess so. I don't know, I haven't met any..."

"Lesbians?" 'Maiko' prompted when Akane seemed to run out of words. She nodded, blushing again.

"Yes. That. I haven't met any before." Nabiki looked at her and grinned.

"How do you know?"

Startled, Akane looked at her. "What do you mean? Of course I'd know."

"How? Why? For all you know some of the girls you went to school with were lesbians, it's not like anyone would have admitted it to you at the time. Your attitude to anything you called perverted was well known. You seemed to classify all males and some females like that, which caused lots of fights. Just think of poor Ranma!" Akane's face darkened at the name, but she controlled her temper with more maturity than Nabiki had expected, possibly because they had visitors.

"He _was_ a pervert. Always dressing in women's clothes, looking at me in the bathroom..." Nabiki sighed, exchanging glances with Nodoka.

"Oh, for heavens sake, Akane, we've been over this _so_ many times. _You_ were the one that walked in on _him_ the few times that happened. He was very careful and respectful about it. And the women's clothing thing is just silly. Even when he was female you could only get him into female clothing with a lot of argument, even though there was nothing wrong with it. When he was a woman he was completely a woman, you know that as well as I do, so wearing women's clothing was fine by anybodies standards." Her sister crossed her arms and stared daggers at her.

"You didn't know him like I did."

"In many ways I think I knew him a lot _better_ than you did. At least I talked to him, basically you just shouted at him then hit him." Noticing her sisters complexion taking on a hue that suggest imminent danger, she raised her hands. "But that's in the past. Forget it. Get back to the subject at hand. Like I said, it's quite possible you do know some lesbians except they're just not telling you about it out of self-preservation. But surely you can see from Maiko and Rika that there's nothing wrong with it?" Akane calmed down and glanced at the two women under discussion who were watching with amused and tolerant expressions.

"I... guess so." She kept looking at them then away, still embarrassed. 'Rika' smiled and pulled her currently female husband in for a kiss, making Akane stare until she realised she was being rude. Nodoka watched with some interest and a slight smile while Nabiki grinned.

"You see? Nothing to be ashamed of. We love each other, that's all there is to it." After a moment Akane nodded very slowly, thinking about it. The others looked at each other. It seemed that the youngest sister had been given something to think about. She remained quiet for the next hour or so, studying them with covert interest, before excusing herself for an early night.

"That was interesting," Nodoka said once she was sure the youngest Tendo was out of earshot. Nabiki nodded.

"Yes. Very." Turning to her guests she said, "We may be on the right track. I guess we'll have to wait and see." She looked at Nodoka, opening her mouth to explain, when the older woman beat her to it.

"You think Akane might be a lesbian but can't admit it to herself." The others all looked rather surprised.

"Um, well, yes, that's sort of what we were considering." Nabiki inspected the older woman with surprise. "I didn't expect you to think of it though." Nodoka looked amused.

"I'm not _completely_ stupid. I've wondered about Akane for years, there's something a little odd about how dead-set against sexual matters in general she is, not to mention her thinking that most perfectly normal expressions of attraction are perverted. I've been considering the idea that she was attracted to women on some level for quite a while. It would explain some of the stranger aspects of her relationship with my son to some degree, better than most of the other reasons I could come up with." Nabiki and the others were looking at her oddly. She grinned. "Didn't expect the old woman to think of all that, did you?" 'Rika' smiled at her with gentle amusement.

"You're hardly old. And I believe you may well be right from what Nabiki has told us."

"Well, perhaps meeting you two will help her work some of this out for herself. God knows it's time she grew up in these matters, she's still very immature in many ways." She sighed a little. "I love the girl like my own daughter but she can be very difficult to live with." After a moment's silence she stood. "Right. I'm off to bed as well. Don't stay up too late you three. Good night." Smiling at them she left the room. They were silent until 'Maiko' nodded with a distant expression for a moment.

"OK, we're shielded. No one will hear anything." She looked at the other two with a surprised smile. "I have to admit I never expected Mom to come out with _that!_ You may be right, she's changed quite a bit."

"We all have, dear. Some more visibly than others. I think your mother has learned a lot from the last few years." 'Maiko' nodded thoughtfully.

"Apparently. Still not in a hurry to tell her yet, though. There's all the rest to think about as well."

"You've met most of the people from your old life. There's still Genma and our father to go, Cologne, and Ryoga, I guess. And perhaps Kodachi." Nabiki looked amused as the disguised Ranma shuddered at the last name. "Not keen on her are you?" 'Maiko' shook her head.

"No, that woman always gave me the creeps. There's something... not right. I don't know what, like Mom said she can sometimes even seem normal for a while, but underneath it all there is a real problem. Much worse than Akane." 'Rika' looked sad.

"Poor girl."

"I have to admit I'm not happy about meeting Cologne just yet. Like I said earlier I'm pretty damn sure she'll never guess who we are but I don't want to take the risk. At least right now. We really don't need her popping up when we still have possibly six very nasty demons to deal with, not to mention all the normal chaos. Leaving aside the fact I like our life now, I don't want any of the old crap getting mixed up with it." 'Maiko' put her feet on the table and looked at them, until 'Rika' softly cleared her throat. Nabiki grinned as she put them back on the floor with an abashed look. "Sorry, love."

"What are you going to do about Akane and Shampoo, then?" Nabiki asked curiously after a moment. 'Rika' smiled, glancing at her husband.

"I suppose we'll have to give them the chance of meeting a pair of magical girls."

"Martial artists," the shorter woman said with a sigh. Her wife laughed.

"As far as they're concerned it's magical girls. Think about it, that's one more level of misdirection. It's a _good_ thing." She and her sister both giggled at the expression on the face of the third woman. Leaning into her side she put her arm around the long haired brunette's shoulders and hugged her. "Don't look so sour, dear, it doesn't suit you."

"We can keep an eye out for them and meet them, I suppose. Hopefully nothing weird will happen at the same time, but the way our life goes I wouldn't put money on it," 'Maiko' said slightly irritably.

"But it's never boring," Nabiki quipped, making them both laugh again.

"Very true."

They talked for a while, before heading for bed. Inside Kasumi's old room, once the door was closed, the two married people stared at each other for a moment. "This feels very strange," 'Rika' said to her husband, who nodded.

"I know. I have to admit I never thought either one of us would be back here, never mind as invited guests." They climbed into bed, snuggling close.

"Do you regret coming?" 'Rika' asked curiously. Her husband shook her head, already half asleep.

"No. I think you were right, as usual. This was something we needed to do." Shortly after that they were asleep, the disguised Kasumi smiling gently to herself with her arms around the love of her life.


End file.
